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| -rw-r--r-- | docs/topics/i18n/translation.txt | 18 |
1 files changed, 18 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/docs/topics/i18n/translation.txt b/docs/topics/i18n/translation.txt index b0d63184e4..1f34b7af6c 100644 --- a/docs/topics/i18n/translation.txt +++ b/docs/topics/i18n/translation.txt @@ -2196,3 +2196,21 @@ to produce the binary ``.mo`` files that are used by ``gettext``. You can also run :djadmin:`django-admin compilemessages --settings=path.to.settings <compilemessages>` to make the compiler process all the directories in your :setting:`LOCALE_PATHS` setting. + +Using a non-English base language +--------------------------------- + +Django makes the general assumption that the original strings in a translatable +project are written in English. You can choose another language, but you must be +aware of certain limitations: + +* ``gettext`` only provides two plural forms for the original messages, so you + will also need to provide a translation for the base language to include all + plural forms if the plural rules for the base language are different from + English. + +* When an English variant is activated and English strings are missing, the + fallback language will not be the :setting:`LANGUAGE_CODE` of the project, + but the original strings. For example, an English user visiting a site with + Spanish as the default language and original strings written in Russian will + fallback to Russian, not to Spanish. |