iOS Supported Language Codes (ISO-639)
Revised: May 2021
How do you name that .xliff or .lproj folder with your localization files?
iOS can be localized into 100 languages and regions, but only 33 languages (plus 6 regions) are supported in App Store Connect. (Apple has translated iOS itself into about 40+ languages.) That means your app can be localized into some languages, like Chinese Hong Kong, but the app descriptions cannot. Languages like Arabic and Hebrew were added only in iOS 13.
Technically, your iOS apps can be localized into ANY language, even those not translated by Apple, though users are less likely to select such languages.
We've put together a table that will help you understand exactly which languages and regions you can serve with your iOS app, and the proper language codes (ISO-639) to use for your .lproj folders where you store the localizations.
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iOS language code table
| iOS Language | ISO-639.lproj Language code (ISO-639) | iPhone/iPad | App Store |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic | ar | iOS > 13 ONLY | |
| Catalan | ca | ||
| Chinese | |||
| Chinese (Simplified) | zh-Hans | ||
| Chinese (Traditional) | zh-Hant | ||
| Chinese (Hong Kong) | zh-HK | ||
| Croatian | hr | ||
| Czech | cs | ||
| Danish | da | ||
| Dutch | nl | ||
| English (U.S.) | en | ||
| English (UK) | en-GB | ||
| English (Australian) | en-AU | ||
| English (Canadian) | en-CA | ||
| English (Indian) | en-IN | ||
| English (Ireland) | en-IE | ||
| English (New Zealand) | en-NZ | ||
| English (Singapore) | en-SG | ||
| English (South Africa) | en-ZA | ||
| Finnish | fi | ||
| French | fr | ||
| French (Canadian) | fr-CA | ||
| German | de | ||
| Greek | el | ||
| Hebrew | he | iOS > 13 ONLY | |
| Hindi | hi | ||
| Hungarian | hu | ||
| Indonesian | id | ||
| Italian | it | ||
| Japanese | ja | ||
| Korean | ko | ||
| Malay | ms | ||
| Norwegian (Bokmal) | nb | ||
| Polish | pl | ||
| Portuguese | pt | ||
| Portuguese (Brazil) | pt-BR | ||
| Romanian | ro | ||
| Russian | ru | ||
| Slovak | sk | ||
| Spanish | es | ||
| Spanish (Latin America) | es-419 | ||
| Spanish (Mexico) | es-MX | ||
| Swedish | sv | ||
| Thai | th | ||
| Turkish | tr | ||
| Ukrainian | uk | ||
| Vietnamese | vi |
See also: App Store Localizations at apple.com
technical note You can specify any regional dialect you wish, AND include languages that Apple has not yet localized. Your users will have to select the language from the new Language and Region settings in the Settings.app. Note that the language will display only for users running iOS 8 and above. For users running previous versions of iOS, the system will actually ignore the localization folder completely for regional dialects like pt-PT and for languages like Farsi that have no system-wide localizations. Those users will see your app's default language.
Does iOS support regions and languages not yet localized by Apple?
Answer: Yes, macOS does and so does iOS beginning with iOS 8.
From the Apple Developer Guide: If necessary, you can use a language or locale code that is not known to the NSBundle class or Core Foundation bundle functions. For example, you could create your own language designators for a language that is not yet listed in the ISO conventions or available as a language in Xcode.
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