Just use FILTER to modify LANG attribute OUTPUT
function modify_language_attributes_defaults($output, $doctype) {
// Check if WPML is active
if (function_exists('icl_object_id')) {
// Get the current language code
$current_language = apply_filters('wpml_current_language', NULL);
switch ($current_language) {
case 'en':
$output = str_replace('en-US', 'en', $output);
break;
case 'lt':
$output = str_replace('lt-LT', 'lt', $output);
break;
case 'ru':
$output = str_replace('ru-RU', 'ru', $output);
break;
}
}
return $output;
}
// add the filter
add_filter( "language_attributes", "modify_language_attributes_defaults", 10, 2 );