Allow default/required settings on multilingual ("Language") fields

Currently the "Language" field on multilingual-enabled content does not have a default when you create content. Should this field carry over the default language from the site configuration, preselecting the default? Or should there be settings on the field per content type, for example, to set a default for that type of content? It would be helpful to be able to specfiy whether this field is required or not as well.