Google Translate set default language

Question

Maybe this has an obvious solution that I'm overlooking, but I can't seem to find the correct parameter to put in to make this happen. Using the Google Translate widget on a site, I need to set the default language that the user sees when entering the site, even though the site is english.

function googleTranslateElementInit() {
    new google.translate.TranslateElement({
       pageLanguage: 'en'
    }, 'google_translate_element');
}

I've tried adding: defaultLanguage: 'fr' and tried: targetLanguage: 'fr'

I did find some nice jQuery solutions, but didn't want to bypass this if it was an easy fix.

user_3253756 · Answer

You can set cookie in JS like this way

function setCookie(key, value, expiry) {
  var expires = new Date();
  expires.setTime(expires.getTime() + (expiry * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000));
  document.cookie = key + '=' + value + ';expires=' + expires.toUTCString();
}

and call in the following way.

function googleTranslateElementInit() {
    setCookie('googtrans', '/en/pt',1);
    new google.translate.TranslateElement({
       pageLanguage: 'en'
    }, 'google_translate_element');
}

user_4298115 · Answer

Based on Josh's answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/12063697/4298115

A simple function to achieve this in vanilla JS:

var language = window.navigator.userLanguage || window.navigator.language;
window.location.replace(`/#googtrans(${language})`);

Then you can test using by changing your browser's locale: https://stackoverflow.com/a/64948204/4298115

Google Translate set default language

10 Answers