Locale: a language plus everything else that changes with it
A locale is a language together with the conventions that travel with a place: date order, number separators, currency, sorting and formality. Switching locale changes more than words, which is why a locale list and a language list are not the same thing. As of 2026-09-22.
| What changes | Visible to a reader | Matters for generated video |
|---|---|---|
| Wording and spelling | Immediately | Yes, in dialogue and on-screen text |
| Date and number format | On any page showing either | Rarely |
| Currency | On pricing pages | No |
| Sorting and collation | In long lists | No |
Inclusion rule. The conventions a locale carries, marked for whether each one affects a reader of a marketing page and a viewer of a finished video. Order. Most visible first.
1Two words for two different bundles
A language is what somebody speaks. A locale is a language plus a set of conventions chosen for a place. Two locales can share a language and differ in half their formatting, which is why software distinguishes them.
In practice a vendor that says locale is usually telling you it has tagged its pages to countries rather than to languages, which is a more specific claim than the word suggests.
2Counting locales inflates a language count
One language served to four countries is four locales and one language. A total that mixes the two is not comparable with a total that does not, and nothing in a headline figure says which it is.
This register counts languages and prints the codes, so a reader can see how much of any set is one language addressed several times. In the tagged sets here it happens to be none, and that is a finding rather than an assumption.
3For video, most of the bundle is irrelevant
Number separators and currency symbols do not appear in a drama. Wording, spelling and any text drawn in the picture do, and so does formality, which in several languages changes the pronouns a character would use.
So the part of a locale that matters for a production is the part a language tag already covers, plus the variant. The rest is a property of the vendor website rather than of anything it generates.
A definition, not a measurement: no vendor figure appears here that is not also in the register. How the register counts sets of tagged codes is described on the how counted page.
Nearby terms: lang attribute, Language cluster. The whole vocabulary is at terms; nothing on this page is a claim about a named product.