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I18n vs L10n vs T9n vs G11n vs M17n: Important for Global Software?
January 18, 2022
What is i18n? How is it different from l10n or g11n? And is t9n the same as m17n? … but most importantly… what do these terms mean for global software creators?
There are a lot of new terms and acronyms you need to learn when you start moving your business into the global market. Terms like global content strategy, computer-assisted translation (CAT), and translation memory (TM) apply to any business creating translated content (and are all explained in our previous article).
But, one set of abbreviations is especially important if you are translating a software product…
What are numeronyms and who uses them?
Numeronyms are a type of abbreviation that uses numbers to reduce the length of a long word. They are particularly useful in global software development because several of the fundamental words around the topic of translation (t9n) are very long.
It's easier to type t9n than it is to type "translation" every time.
There are at least two types of numeronym:
- Phonetic numeronyms such as "gr8" instead of the word "great."
- Algorithmic numeronyms that replace a set of letters with a single number.
You can create this second type of numeronym out of any word. For example, the word "Rubric" becomes "R4c".
The story goes that this type of numeronym was created by a systems administrator in the company Digital Equipment Corporation in 1985. They couldn't create an account for employee Jan Scherpenhuizen because his surname was too long, so they shortened it to S12n.
Why these numeronyms are important for global software
I think it's fair to say that software developers, by nature, favor doing things "the easy way" when possible. At Rubric, we are great believers in developing macros, shortcuts, and scripts rather than repeating the same manual tasks again and again. This approach is just more efficient.
Numeronyms are an example of this love of efficiency among software developers. Rather than type the word "internationalization" every time, we reduce it to a simple "i18n."
You need to be familiar with these abbreviations if you want to prepare your software product for international markets.
Let's say that you are using the React web development framework for your app. You want to search online for advice on how to prepare your app for internationalization.
What should you search for?
"i18n react" This would take you to the i18next framework and ecosystem for internationalizing JavaScript web applications.
When you are familiar with these numeronyms, you will find it easier to navigate all the information around multilingual software development.
Let's have a look at 5 of the most common numeronyms in global software development…
I18n means Internationalization
Internationalization (i18n) means creating a product that can be easily "localized" for audiences in your target international markets. For example, software that supports Unicode text is important for using multiple languages and functional code should be separable from localizable strings.
As the W3 consortium notes, the term i18n is sometimes used differently by different people. However you use it, i18n generally refers to making the underlying structure of your software suitable for localization and translation. It doesn't refer to the process of adapting the content for different markets, which is what we mean by localization.
L10n means Localization
Localization (i10n) is the process of adapting content for a particular locale. It involves translating the words from one language into another language. It also involves converting many other aspects of the content to suit a particular market.
Examples of aspects that can be changed during the l10n process include dates, currencies, images, iconography, colors, and many more. Effective l10n requires a deep knowledge of the target market and the peculiarities of that culture.
T9n means Translation
Translation (t9n) is the process of converting one human language into another human language. It involves turning a "linguistic unit" into a comparable linguistic unit in another language.
T9n is the simplest and most widely understood term on this list. It is often all that people think of when they are looking to adapt their software product for an international market. However, it is not usually enough to simply translate your software content. You also need software that is i18n compatible and you will likely need l10n (check above if you've forgotten what these mean already!).
G11n means Globalization
Globalization (g11n) is the process of bringing your products to global markets. It relates to your company's overall strategy for growing the business globally. You need to have a suitable g11n strategy in place as well as a global content strategy for how you will localize your software content.
A related term is g11n testing. This is a type of software testing that you can use to ensure that your software product can function independently of a geographical or cultural environment.
M17n means Multilingualization
Multilinguilization (m17n) refers to software that supports multiple languages for display and input. However, the User Interface (UI) is only usually in one language so the software is not fully localized.
Whether or not you choose m17n or you choose full i18n for your software depends on your strategic goals for your product. Maybe a particular market doesn't require fully localized software and simple t9n of certain parts of the software will be sufficient for that market's needs.
At Rubric, we always help our clients to identify if a particular piece of content really needs to be translated. This helps ensure you don't needlessly spend your translation budget.
Where to learn about other important translation terms
Are there other terms and abbreviations that you have heard around the topic of t9n that you still don't understand?
A good place to start is to read our article 19 Important Translation Terms You Need to Understand. It gives a list of the top terms that people in your situation often stumble over when they are getting started translating their software content.
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