PROBLEM PHP - button text translate to 3 languages

[shawn_a]

use code tags..

That looks correct where you have it now. At the beginning of your component that uses it.
components are called like functions so imagine they are inside a function ( an anonymous function actually )
That is why the global is needed, because that variable is not in your scope.

It is possible your languages are not defined as 2 letter codes?
you can add a debugLog($language); in there and see

maybe you need a strtolower($language) == 'en'.

Not sure, could be language is not set

PHP Code:

<?php 
global $language;
debugLog($language);
$langlower = strtolower($language);
if ($langlower = 'en') { // you might need to make sure this is case sensitive for all these checks
echo 'Next';
}else if ($langlower = 'de') {
echo 'Naechste';
}else if ($langlower = 'fr') {
echo 'Suivant ';
}
else echo "language not set"; // catch if not set to any of these

?>