The character language attribute determines which dictionary is used for spell checking and which rules and exceptions are used for hyphenation. When you check the spelling of text that uses different languages, each word is checked using the assigned language dictionary. When automatic hyphenation is enabled for a project that uses different character languages, each word is hyphenated using the appropriate hyphenation rules and hyphenation exceptions for that language.

To apply a character language to text, use the Language drop-down menu in the Character Attributes dialog box (Style > Character). You can also apply character language using style sheets and the Character Attributes pane of the Measurements palette.