Locale codes for iPhone lproj folders

Question

Where would I find a list of locale name abbreviations for my project localization folders? (Such as en for English, fr for French).

I am looki

Answer 1

German is de, Spanish is es. The general format for these codes is languageCode_CountryCode or languageCode (used as the default for when a language is specified, but not a country).

So you can do things like en (generic english), en_GB (english, but from the UK), fr_FR (French from France), and fr_CH (swiss french).

Language codes are part of the ISO 639-1 standard, and country codes are from the ISO 3166 standard.

Answer 2

Shortly, you should use two letters codes for most cases, as specified by BCP 47 codes.

Longer, as specified by official Apple documentation you are supposed to use BCP 47 codes.

Now the rule of thumb is to use the shortest code possible that makes sense. You should use this because this maximizes the coverage for similar locales.

For example, if you localize in Russian, you should use only ru code, instead of alternatives like ru-RU. This is important because if you use the short code, the users from other countries that are speaking Russian will see your application in Russian. Otherwise you will display Russian only for people using Russian language from Russia.

If you want to know more information about language codes including recommended codes for most used languages, you should to read a short article I wrote more than a year ago http://blog.i18n.ro/simplified-locale-codes/ - Remember that there are some tricks regarding Portuguese and Chinese but for other languages you can use the list below.

Arabic (ar), Czech (cs), Danish (da), German (de), Greek (el), Finnish (fi), Hebrew (he), Hungarian (hu), Italian (it), Japanese (ja), Korean (ko), Norwegian (nb), Dutch (nl), Polish (pl), Romanian (ro), Russian (ru), Swedish (sv), Turkish (tr), Ukrainian (uk).

Answer 3

This question has been answered but I think made more confusing by the multiple sources. The fact is that iOS has 30 languages that it will recognize as .lproj folders. It won't accept any regional codes, so telling it fr-CA won't get you French Canadian, but rather will simply use your English strings. You need to use the two-letter code for the language (en.lproj, fr.lproj, es.lproj, de.lproj, and so on). The only exception to this rule is Chinese, which should be zh_Hans for Simplified Chinese and zh_Hant for Traditional Chinese.

What makes this even more confusing is that the iTunes App Store has a different set of languages that it understands, and it does recognize many regional versions like Australian English and Brazilian Portuguese.

There is a complete (and updated) list of the current supported languages and language codes for both iOS and iTunes here:

http://www.ibabbleon.com/iOS-Language-Codes-ISO-639.html

Answer 4

You can just call them English.lproj, Spanish.lproj, etc.

The "abbreviated names" are actually IETF language tags (i.e. BCP 47), except that you use pt_PT.lproj instead of pt-PT.lproj.

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The actual interpretation routine is in https://github.com/apple/swift-corelibs-foundation/blob/master/CoreFoundation/PlugIn.subproj/CFBundle_Locale.c, determined by the CFBundleGetLocalizationInfoForLocalization function. Replicated here:

| lproj identifiers              | L#  | C#  | Display name               |
|:-------------------------------|:----|:----|:---------------------------|
| en_US = en = English           | 0   | 0   | English (United States)    |
| en_GB                          | 0   | 2   | English (United Kingdom)   |
| en_AU                          | 0   | 15  | English (Australia)        |
| en_CA                          | 0   | 82  | English (Canada)           |
| en_SG                          | 0   | 100 | English (Singapore)        |
| en_IE                          | 0   | 108 | English (Ireland)          |
| fr_FR = fr = French            | 1   | 1   | French (France)            |
| fr_CA                          | 1   | 11  | French (Canada)            |
| fr_CH                          | 1   | 18  | French (Switzerland)       |
| fr_BE                          | 1   | 98  | French (Belgium)           |
| de_DE = de = German            | 2   | 3   | German (Germany)           |
| de_CH                          | 2   | 19  | German (Switzerland)       |
| de_AT                          | 2   | 92  | German (Austria)           |
| it_IT = it = Italian           | 3   | 4   | Italian (Italy)            |
| it_CH                          | 3   | 36  | Italian (Switzerland)      |
| nl_NL = nl = Dutch             | 4   | 5   | Dutch (Netherlands)        |
| nl_BE                          | 34  | 6   | Dutch (Belgium)            |    
| sv_SE = sv = Swedish           | 5   | 7   | Swedish (Sweden)           |
| es_ES = es = Spanish           | 6   | 8   | Spanish (Spain)            |
| es_XL                          | 6   | 86  | Spanish (Latin America)    |
| da_DK = da = Danish            | 7   | 9   | Danish (Denmark)           |
| pt_BR = pt = Portuguese        | 8   | 71  | Portuguese (Brazil)        |
| pt_PT                          | 8   | 10  | Portuguese (Portugal)      |
| nb_NO = nb = no = Norwegian    | 9   | 12  | Norwegian Bokmål (Norway)  |
| nn_NO = nn = Nynorsk           | 151 | 101 | Norwegian Nynorsk (Norway) |
| he_IL = he = Hebrew            | 10  | 13  | Hebrew (Israel)            |
| ja_JP = ja = Japanese          | 11  | 14  | Japanese (Japan)           |
|         ar = Arabic            | 12  | 16  | Arabic                     |
| fi_FI = fi = Finnish           | 13  | 17  | Finnish (Finland)          |
| el_GR = el = Greek             | 14  | 20  | Greek (Greece)             |
| el_CY                          | 14  | 23  | Greek (Cyprus)             |
| is_IS = is = Icelandic         | 15  | 21  | Icelandic (Iceland)        |
| mt_MT = mt = Maltese           | 16  | 22  | Maltese (Malta)            |
| tr_TR = tr = Turkish           | 17  | 24  | Turkish (Turkey)           |
| hr_HR = hr = Croatian          | 18  | 68  | Croatian (Croatia)         |
| zh_TW = zh-Hant                | 19  | 53  | Chinese (Taiwan)           |
| zh_CN = zh = zh-Hans = Chinese | 33  | 52  | Chinese (China)            |
| ur_PK = ur = Urdu              | 20  | 34  | Urdu (Pakistan)            |
| ur_IN                          | 20  | 96  | Urdu (India)               |
| hi_IN = hi = Hindi             | 21  | 33  | Hindi (India)              |
| th_TH = th = Thai              | 22  | 54  | Thai (Thailand)            |
| ko_KR = ko = Korean            | 23  | 51  | Korean (South Korea)       |
| lt_LT = lt = Lithuanian        | 24  | 41  | Lithuanian (Lithuania)     |
| pl_PL = pl = Polish            | 25  | 42  | Polish (Poland)            |
| hu_HU = hu = Hungarian         | 26  | 43  | Hungarian (Hungary)        |
| et_EE = et = Estonian          | 27  | 44  | Estonian (Estonia)         |
| lv_LV = lv = Latvian           | 28  | 45  | Latvian (Latvia)           |
|         se = Sami              | 29  | 46  | Northern Sami              |
| fo_FO = fo = Faroese           | 30  | 47  | Faroese (Faroe Islands)    |
| fa_IR = fa = Farsi             | 31  | 48  | Persian (Iran)             |
| ru_RU = ru = Russian           | 32  | 49  | Russian (Russia)           |
| ga_IE = ga = Irish             | 35  | 50  | Irish (Ireland)            |
|         sq = Albanian          | 36  | -1  | Albanian                   |
| ro_RO = ro = Romanian          | 37  | 39  | Romanian (Romania)         |
| cs_CZ = cs = Czech             | 38  | 56  | Czech (Czech Republic)     |
| sk_SK = sk = Slovak            | 39  | 57  | Slovak (Slovakia)          |
| sl_SI = sl = Slovenian         | 40  | 66  | Slovenian (Slovenia)       |
|         yi = Yiddish           | 41  | -1  | Yiddish                    |
| sr_CS = sr = Serbian           | 42  | 65  | Serbian (Serbia)           |
| mk_MK = mk = Macedonian        | 43  | 67  | Macedonian (Macedonia)     |
| bg_BG = bg = Bulgarian         | 44  | 72  | Bulgarian (Bulgaria)       |
| uk_UA = uk = Ukrainian         | 45  | 62  | Ukrainian (Ukraine)        |
| be_BY = be = Byelorussian      | 46  | 61  | Belarusian (Belarus)       |
| uz_UZ = uz = Uzbek             | 47  | 99  | Uzbek (Uzbekistan)         |
|         kk = Kazakh            | 48  | -1  | Kazakh                     |
| hy_AM = hy = Armenian          | 51  | 84  | Armenian (Armenia)         |
| ka_GE = ka = Georgian          | 52  | 85  | Georgian (Georgia)         |
|         mo = Moldavian         | 53  | -1  | Moldavian                  |
|         ky = Kirghiz           | 54  | -1  | Kyrgyz                     |
|         tg = Tajiki            | 55  | -1  | Tajik                      |
|         tk = Turkmen           | 56  | -1  | Turkmen                    |
|         mn = Mongolian         | 58  | -1  | Mongolian                  |
|         ps = Pashto            | 59  | -1  | Pashto                     |
|         ku = Kurdish           | 60  | -1  | Kurdish                    |
|         ks = Kashmiri          | 61  | -1  | Kashmiri                   |
|         sd = Sindhi            | 62  | -1  | Sindhi                     |
|         bo = Tibetan           | 63  | 105 | Tibetan                    |
| ne_NP = ne = Nepali            | 64  | 106 | Nepali (Nepal)             |
|         sa = Sanskrit          | 65  | -1  | Sanskrit                   |
| mr_IN = mr = Marathi           | 66  | 104 | Marathi (India)            |
|         bn = Bengali           | 67  | 60  | Bengali                    |
|         as = Assamese          | 68  | -1  | Assamese                   |
| gu_IN = gu = Gujarati          | 69  | 94  | Gujarati (India)           |
|         pa = Punjabi           | 70  | 95  | Punjabi                    |
|         or = Oriya             | 71  | -1  | Oriya                      |
|         ml = Malayalam         | 72  | -1  | Malayalam                  |
|         kn = Kannada           | 73  | -1  | Kannada                    |
|         ta = Tamil             | 74  | -1  | Tamil                      |
|         te = Telugu            | 75  | -1  | Telugu                     |
|         si = Sinhalese         | 76  | -1  | Sinhala                    |
|         my = Burmese           | 77  | -1  | Burmese                    |
|         km = Khmer             | 78  | -1  | Khmer                      |
|         lo = Lao               | 79  | -1  | Lao                        |
| vi_VN = vi = Vietnamese        | 80  | 97  | Vietnamese (Vietnam)       |
|         id = Indonesian        | 81  | -1  | Indonesian                 |
|         tl = Tagalog           | 82  | -1  | Tagalog                    |
|         ms = Malay             | 83  | -1  | Malay                      |
|         am = Amharic           | 85  | -1  | Amharic                    |
|         ti = Tigrinya          | 86  | -1  | Tigrinya                   |
|         om = Oromo             | 87  | -1  | Oromo                      |
|         so = Somali            | 88  | -1  | Somali                     |
|         sw = Swahili           | 89  | -1  | Swahili                    |
|         rw = Kinyarwanda       | 90  | -1  | Kinyarwanda                |
|         rn = Rundi             | 91  | -1  | Rundi                      |
|              Nyanja            | 92  | -1  | Nyanja                     |
|         mg = Malagasy          | 93  | -1  | Malagasy                   |
|         eo = Esperanto         | 94  | 103 | Esperanto                  |
|         cy = Welsh             | 128 | 79  | Welsh                      |
|         eu = Basque            | 129 | -1  | Basque                     |
| ca_ES = ca = Catalan           | 130 | 73  | Catalan (Spain)            |
|         la = Latin             | 131 | -1  | Latin                      |
|         qu = Quechua           | 132 | -1  | Quechua                    |
|         gn = Guarani           | 133 | -1  | Guarani                    |
|         ay = Aymara            | 134 | -1  | Aymara                     |
|         tt = Tatar             | 135 | -1  | Tatar                      |
|         ug = Uighur            | 136 | -1  | Uyghur                     |
| dz_BT = dz = Dzongkha          | 137 | 83  | Dzongkha (Bhutan)          |
|         jv = Javanese          | 138 | -1  | Javanese                   |
|         su = Sundanese         | 139 | -1  | Sundanese                  |
|         gl = Galician          | 140 | -1  | Galician                   |
| af_ZA = af = Afrikaans         | 141 | 102 | Afrikaans (South Africa)   |
|         br = Breton            | 142 | 77  | Breton                     |
| iu_CA = iu = Inuktitut         | 143 | 78  | Inuktitut (Canada)         |
|         gd = Scottish          | 144 | 75  | Scottish Gaelic            |
|         gv = Manx              | 145 | 76  | Manx                       |
| to_TO = to = Tongan            | 147 | 88  | Tongan (Tonga)             |
|         grc                    | 148 | 40  | Ancient Greek              |
|         kl = Greenlandic       | 149 | 107 | Kalaallisut                |
|         az = Azerbaijani       | 150 | -1  | Azerbaijani                |

Here:

• L# is the language code and C# is the country code. I consider two identifier identical if they share the same language and country code.
• I have only listed strings appearing the source file. It also recognizes something like zh_HK and Traditional Chinese (both have same code number as zh_TW), probably through the more sophisticated CFLocale list.

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As of iOS 10.3.1, the following list of lproj names are actually used by Apple:

• Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish
• ar, bo, ca, cs, da, de, el, en, es, fi, fr, he, hi, hr, hu, id, it, ja, ko, ms, nb, nl, no, pa, pl, pt, ro, ru, sk, sv, th, tr, uk, ur, vi, chr (Note: chr = Cherokee)
• en_AU, en_CA, en_CN, en_GB, en_ID, en_IN, en_JP, en_MY, en_NZ, en_SG
• es_419, es_AR, es_CL, es_CO, es_CR, es_GT, es_MX, es_PA, es_PE, es_US
• ar_SA, da_DK, de_AT, de_CH, fi_FI, fr_BE, fr_CA, fr_CH, he_IL, it_CH, ms_MY, nb_NO, nl_BE, nl_NL, pt_BR, pt_PT, ru_RU, sv_SE, th_TH, tr_TR, yue_CN, zh_CN, zh_HK, zh_TW