Thursday, February 23, 2023

The Unicode CLDR v43 Alpha is now available for integration testing

[image] CLDR provides key building blocks for software to support the world's languages (dates, times, numbers, sort-order, etc.). For example, all major browsers and all modern mobile phones use CLDR for language support. (See Who uses CLDR?)

Via the online Survey Tool, contributors supply data for their languages — data that is widely used to support much of the world’s software. This data is also a factor in determining which languages are supported on mobile phones and computer operating systems.

The Alpha has already been integrated into the development version of ICU. We would especially appreciate feedback from non-ICU consumers of CLDR data and on Migration issues. Feedback can be filed at CLDR Tickets.

Alpha means that the main data and charts are available for review, but the specification, JSON data, and other components are not yet ready for review. Data may change if release-blocking bugs are found. The planned schedule is:
  • 2023 Mar 15, Wed — public Beta (data)
  • 2023 Mar 29, Wed — public Beta2 (data & spec)
  • 2023 Apr 12, Wed — Release
CLDR 43 is a limited-submission release, focusing on just a few areas:
  1. Formatting Person Names
    • Completing the data for formatting person names, allowing it to advance out of “tech preview”. For more information on the benefits of this feature, see Background.
  2. Adding substantially to the LikelySubtags data
    • This is used to find the likely writing system and country for a given language, used in normalizing locale identifiers and inheritance.
    • The data has been contributed by SIL.
  3. Other data updates
    • Alternate names for Turkey / Türkiye
    • Name for the new timezone Ciudad Juárez
  4. Structure
    • Adding some structure and data needed for ICU4X & JavaScript, for calendar eras and parentLocales.
    • Cleanup of the inheritance structure in CLDR
  5. Collation & Searching
    • Treat various quote marks as equivalent at a Primary strength, also including Geresh and Gershayim.

To find out more about these and other changes, see the draft CLDR v43 release page, which has information on accessing the date, reviewing charts of the changes, and — importantly — Migration issues.


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To support Unicode’s mission to ensure everyone can communicate in their languages across all devices, please consider adopting a character, making a gift of stock, or making a donation. As Unicode, Inc. is a US-based open source, open standards, non-profit, 501(c)3 organization, your contribution may be eligible for a tax deduction. Please consult with a tax advisor for details.

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