Languages
Shared and custom languages, and how they attach to namespaces.
Not verified yet
LangSync supports two kinds of languages:
- Shared languages are global – every customer can use them. They use
IETF BCP 47 codes:
en-US,pt-BR,zh-TW,de-DE, and ~100 others. Norcube maintains the list. - Custom languages are scoped to your organization. Use them when you need a dialect, an internal variant, or a pseudo-locale for testing.
Custom languages
A custom language has a code (lowercase letters, digits, underscores,
hyphens – must start with a letter, up to 32 characters) and a display
name that appears in the dashboard. Custom codes don't have to follow
BCP 47, but staying close to it (e.g. en-pirate, en-US-formal) helps
when integrating with i18n libraries that recognise the standard.
Languages and namespaces
A language doesn't translate anything on its own – you attach it to a namespace. A namespace has:
- One default language, set when you create the namespace.
- Any number of target languages, added later from the namespace's Languages page.
Translations always go from the default language to a target.
When to use a custom language
- Brand voice variants.
en-US-formalanden-US-casualif your product needs two registers. - Pseudo-locales for QA. A custom
qa-zzwith prefixed values makes missing-translation bugs obvious in screenshots. - Regional rollouts. Use a custom code while in beta; switch to the standard code on launch.
For everything else, prefer shared languages – they're zero-config and universally understood by translation tools.
Behaviour and edge cases
- Deleting a custom language also deletes every translation stored in that language across every namespace it was attached to. Attached namespaces lose that language from their language list.
- Shared languages cannot be deleted – they're managed by Norcube. Detach them from a namespace if you no longer need them.
- Renaming a custom language changes only the display name. The code is immutable once created; if you need a new code, create a new language and migrate translations.