CLDR 48 Release Note

No.	Date	Rel. Note	Data	Charts	Spec	Delta	GitHub Tag	Delta DTD	CLDR JSON
48	2025-10-XX	v48	CLDR48	Charts48	LDML48	Δ48	release-48-alpha3	ΔDtd48	48.0.0-ALPHA3

ALPHA DRAFT

Overview

Unicode CLDR provides key building blocks for software supporting the world’s languages. CLDR data is used by all major software systems (including all mobile phones) for their software internationalization and localization, adapting software to the conventions of different languages.

CLDR 48 was an open submission cycle allowing contributors to supply data for their languages via the CLDR Survey Tool — 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.

Changes

The most significant changes in this release are:

• Updated for Unicode 17, including new names and search terms for new emoji, new sort-order, Han→Latn romanization additions for many characters
• Updated to the latest external standards and data sources, such as the language subtag registry, UN M49 macro regions, ISO 4217 currencies, etc.
• Many enhancements of the CLDR specification (LDML), including:
  • Further additions to the Message Format 2.0 spec
• Many additions to language data including:
  • Likely Subtags, for deriving the likely script and region from the language (used in many processes)
  • Language populations in countries: significant updates to improve accuracy and maintainability
• New formatting options
  • Rational number formats added, allowing for formats like 5½.
  • For timezones, usesMetazone adds two new attributes stdOffset and dstOffset so that implementations can use either “vanguard” or “rearguard” TZDB data sources.
  • There are now combination formats for relative dates + times, such as “tomorrow at 12:30”.
  • Additional units were added for scientific contexts (coulombs, farads, teslas, etc.) and for English systems (fortnights, imperial pints, etc.). New non-metric units were not translated aside from a few languages
• Many corrections and updates for Metazone data, for calendars (including removal of eras and fixes to start dates).
• This is the first release where the new CLDR Organization process is in place for DDL languages. As a result, several locales were able to reach higher levels (see below).

For more details, see below.

Locale Coverage Status

The following shows the coverage levels per language in this version of CLDR.

• The With Script column indicates which of the Count locales are language-script variants.
  • For example, zh_Hant and zh(_Hans) add two to the Count, and one to With Script.
• The Regional Variants column indicates the number of other regional locales: none are in Count.
  • For example, there are 46 locales for French, such as fr, fr_CA, fr_BE, etc., so that adds 46 to the RV column for Modern.

Current Levels

Count	With Script	Regional Variants	Level	Usage	Examples
104	5	305	Modern	Suitable for full UI internationalization	Afrikaans, shqip, አማርኛ, ‫العربية‬, հայերեն, অসমীয়া, azərbaycan
13	0	1	Moderate	Suitable for “document content” internationalization, eg. in spreadsheet	Akan, Cebuano, Māori, тоҷикӣ
57	10	22	Basic	Suitable for locale selection, eg. choice of language on mobile phone	भोजपुरी, बर’, डोगरी, eʋegbe, Gã, हरियाणवी

Changes

±	New Level	Locales
📈	Modern	Akan, Bashkir, Chuvash, Kazakh (Arabic), Romansh, Shan, Quechua
📈	Moderate	Anii, Esperanto
📈	Basic	Buriat, Piedmontese, Sicilian, Tuvinian
📉	Basic*	Baluchi (Latin), Kurdish

* Note: Two locales dropped in coverage (📉), from Moderate to Basic. Each release, the number of items needed for Modern and Moderate increases. So locales without active contributors may drop down in coverage level.

For a full listing, see Coverage Levels

Specification Changes

The following are the most significant changes to the specification (LDML).

• TBD Changes will be added before the beta, on Oct 1.

There are many more changes that are important to implementations, such as changes to certain identifier syntax and various algorithms. See the Modifications section of the specification for details.

Data Changes

Locale Changes

General

• Languages that reached Basic in the last release have their names translated at Modern Coverage in this release.
• Compound language names now have “core” and “extension” variants for more uniform formats in menus and lists
  • For example, that allows the Kurdish variants to have a uniform format where more than Kurmanji is displayed.
    • Kashmiri
    • Kurdish (Kurmanji, Latin)
    • Kurdish (Central, Arabic)
    • Kurdish (Southern, Arabic)
    • Kyrgyz
• Many features selectable with locale options now have scope="core" names, for better presentation in menus
  • Calendar names, collation names, emoji options, currency formats, hour-cycle options, and so on.
  • Rather than seeing
    • Calendar
      • Buddhist Calendar
      • Chinese Calendar
      • Gregorian Calendar
  • Users can see
    • Calendar
      • Buddhist
      • Chinese
      • Gregorian
• Recent or upcoming currency names were added (XCG, ZWG)
• To match ISO, translations for the region Sark (CQ) was added.
• There are now combination formats for relative dates + times, such as “tomorrow at 12:30”. In some languages the use of a relative date such as “tomorrow” or “2 days ago” requires a different combining pattern than for a fixed date like “March 20”. A new “relative” variant is introduced to allow for those languages.
• Some additional flexible date formats were added. (aka availableFormats)
• Many locales had seldom-used short timezone abbreviations (such as EST) removed, or moved to sublocales that use them.
• The currency-number formats for alphaNextToNumber, noCurrency, and compact currency formats are now generated from other data for consistency. The alphaNextToNumber patterns allow for a space between letter currency symbols and numbers. For example, “USD 123” vs “$123”.
• The tooling made it easier to see when a space was a non-breaking character or not, or thin versions of those. The usage is now more consisent in many locales.
• New emoji for Unicode 17 have added names and search keywords.
• For the Etc/Unknown timezone, the exemplarCity name was changed from “Unknown City” to “Unknown Location” for clarity.
• Rational number formats were added, allowing for formats like 5½.
• Certain concentration units were reworked, for “parts per million”, “parts per billion”
• Additional units were added for scientific contexts (coulombs, farads, teslas, etc.) and for English systems (fortnights, imperial pints, etc.). However, translation of these English system names were not required.
• Additional guidance on translation was added, leading to refined translations or transcreations.

Specific Locales

• Kurdish (Kurmanji) ku split from 1 locale ku_TR into 5 locales across 2 scripts and 4 countries. (CLDR-18311)
  • ku_Latn_TR: Kurdish (Kurmanji, Latin alphabet, Turkey) default for Kurdish (Kurmanji) ku and ku_Latn
  • ku_Latn_SY: Kurdish (Kurmanji, Latin alphabet, Syria)
  • ku_Latn_IQ: Kurdish (Kurmanji, Latin alphabet, Iraq)
  • ku_Arab_IQ: Kurdish (Kurmanji, Arabic writing, Iraq), default for Kurdish (Kurmanji, Arabic writing) ku_Arab
  • ku_Arab_IR: Kurdish (Kurmanji, Arabic writing, Iran)

For a full listing, see Delta Data.

DTD Changes

For a full listing, see Delta DTDs.

ldml

The explanations of usage are in the Locale Changes section.

• exemplarCharacters — added more type values:
  • numbers-auxiliary — for number characters that are not ‘core’ to the language, but sometimes used (like regular auxiliary)
  • punctuation-auxiliary — for punctual characters that are not ‘core’ to the language, but sometimes used (like regular auxiliary)
  • punctuation-person — for the limited set of punctuation characters used in person name fields: eg, “Jean-Luc”, “MD, Ph.D.”
• dateTimeFormat — added a relative type value for combining time and date.
• gmtUnknownFormat — element was added — Indicating that the timezone is unknown (as opposed to absent from the format)
• language — added more menu values: core and extension
• type — added a core scope value
• numbers — added rationalFormats sub-elements: rationalPattern, integerAndRationalPattern (with an alt="superSub" variant), rationalUsage
• rbnf​/rulesetGrouping — added rbnfRules sub-element:
  • This “flattens” the rules into a format that is easier for implementations to use directly.

supplementalData

• era — the range of code values nows allows two letters before the first hyphen.
• languageData — the territories attribute supplementalData.xml was deprecated and data using it removed. The definition was unclear, and prone to misunderstanding — the more detailed data is in territoryInfo. (CLDR-5708)
• usesMetazone — adds two new attributes stdOffset and dstOffset so that implementations can use either “vanguard” or “rearguard” TZDB data sources.
• numberingSystem — Unicode 17 data was added.

ldmlBCP47

• type — adds a new attibute region
• keyboard3@conformsTo — is updated to allow “48”

BCP47 Data Changes

• nu-tols numbering system for Tolong Siki digits
• One additional zone: America/Coyhaique = tz-clcxq
• Seven region attributes for determining regions for timezones
• Three additional aliases

For a full listing, see BCP47 Delta.

Supplemental Data Changes

Identifiers

• Added aliases/deprecations for languages (dek, mnk, nte)
• Updated to the latest language subtag registry, with various additions and deprecations
• Updated to the ISO currency data, with various additions and deprecations
• Added unit IDs part, part-per-1e6, part-per-1e9, cup-imperial, fluid-ounce-metric, … with conversions
  • deprecated unit IDs permillion, portion, portion-per-1e9, 100-kilometer

Language Data

• language_script.tsv updated to include only one “Primary” writing system for languages that used to have multiple options (CLDR-18114). Notable changes are:
  • Panjabi pa has the primary to Gurumukhi Guru because widespread usage is in the Gurumukhi script – while most speakers are in Pakistan PK, written usage remains Gurumukhi.
  • Azerbaijani az and Northern Kurdish ku primarily are used in Latin Latn.
  • Chinese languages zh, hak, and nan are matched to Simplified Han writing Hans – except Cantonese yue, which is known for a preference in Traditional Han writing Hant.
  • Hassiniyya mey was missing significant data, it should be associated with the Arabic Arab writing system by default, not Latin Latn.
• 5 new language distance values are added (for fallback to zh).
• Substantial updates to Language Info: additional languages in countries; revised population values, writing percentages, literacy percentages, and official status values.

Likely Subtags

• Many additions: see Likely Subtags
• Errors in likely subtags addressed
  • The default language for Belarus BY is now Russian ru, reflecting modern usage. (CLDR-14479)
  • Literary Chinese lzh was written in Traditional Han writing Hant. (CLDR-16715)
• Likely subtags updated because of prior mentioned primary script matches.
  • Northern Kurdish ku now matched to Cyrillic writing in the CIS countries. (CLDR-18114)
  • Hassiniyya mey updated to default to mey_Arab_DZ instead of mey_Latn_SN (CLDR-18114)

Calendars, Timezones, Dayperiods

• Many updates and corrections for Metazone data
• Many updates to calendars, including the removal of eras and adjustment to era start dates
• Day periods for kok, scn, hi_Latn

Plural Rules

• additions for cv, ie, kok, sgs

Currencies

• Updates to the latest ISO currencies

Weekdata

• IS changed to firstDay=sun
• ku_SY adding H and hB

For a full listing, see Supplemental Delta.

Transforms

• Fixed problem in Gujarati → Latin romanization, with ૰
• Updated to latest Unicode 17 data for Han → Latin, with very many changes.

For a full listing, see Transforms Delta.

Number Spellout Data Changes

• The biggest change is to the format, which has been “flattened” for easier use by clients.

JSON Data Changes

• TBD

File Changes

The following files are new in the release:

Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Files
common	annotations		ba.xml, shn.xml, sv_FI.xml, syr.xml
	casing		sgs.xml
	collation		blo.xml, sgs.xml
	main		bqi_IR.xml, bqi.xml, bua_RU.xml, bua.xml, en_EE.xml, en_GE.xml, en_JP.xml, en_LT.xml, en_LV.xml, en_UA.xml, kek_GT.xml, kek.xml, ku_Arab_IQ.xml, ku_Arab_IR.xml, ku_Arab.xml, ku_Latn_IQ.xml, ku_Latn_SY.xml, ku_Latn_TR.xml, ku_Latn.xml, lzz_TR.xml, lzz.xml, mww_Hmnp_US.xml, mww_Hmnp.xml, mww.xml, oka_CA.xml, oka_US.xml, oka.xml, pi_Latn_GB.xml, pi_Latn.xml, pi.xml, pms_IT.xml, pms.xml, sgs_LT.xml, sgs.xml, suz_Deva_NP.xml, suz_Deva.xml, suz_Sunu_NP.xml, suz_Sunu.xml, suz.xml
	testData	personNameTest	ba.txt, blo.txt, cv.txt, kk_Arab.txt, kok_Latn.txt, rm.txt, shn.txt
	uca		FractionalUCA_blanked.txt

Tooling Changes

• TBD

Keyboard Changes

• TBD

Migration

• Number patterns that did not have a specific numberSystem (such as latn or arab) had be deprecated for many releases, and were finally removed.
• Additionally, language and territory data in languageData and territoryInfo data received significant updates to improve accuracy and maintainability CLDR-18087
• The likely language for Belarus changed to Russian CLDR-14479
• TBD Additional items plus future guidance will be added before the beta, on Oct 1.

V49 advance warnings

The following changes are planned for CLDR 49. Please plan accordingly to avoid disruption.

• The default week numbering changes to ISO instead being based on the calendar week starting in CLDR 48 CLDR-18275. The calendar week will be more clearly targeted at matching usage in displayed month calendars.
• The pre-Meiji Japanese eras were removed: There was too much uncertainty in the exact values and feedback that the general practice for exact dates is to use Gregorian for pre-Meiji dates.
• The major components in supplementalData.xml and supplementalMetadata.xml files are slated to be organized more logically and moved into separate files.
  • This will make it easier for implementations to filter out data that they don’t need, and make internal maintenance easier. This will not affect the data: just which file it is located in. Please plan to update XML and JSON parsers accordingly.

Known Issues

• CLDR-18219 common/subdivisions data files contained additional values that should not be present. These will be removed in the future, but note that they may be present in the new JSON data:
  • Non-subdivisions such as AW: Use the region code AW instead for translation.
  • Overlong subdivisions such as fi01: Use the region code AX instead for translation.

Acknowledgments

Many people have made significant contributions to CLDR and LDML; see the Acknowledgments page for a full listing.

The Unicode Terms of Use apply to CLDR data; in particular, see Exhibit 1.

For web pages with different views of CLDR data, see http://cldr.unicode.org/index/charts.