Thank you for your suggestions... my portal does not have a preferred language, and neither will the web dynpro application. the portal and iview are originally being called from a 3rd party front end portal (not SAP) where the users will have different languages. I need to pass the language through as a dynamic parameter from the URL calling the SAP portal.
This was working successfully with a Generic Application Intergrator iview, but now will not work with the Web Dynpro iview, because that iview has picked up the parameter from the application somehow and is already filling one of them in. I can pass a second one, but it does not override the first one.
Ruth