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Locales are primarily identified by their base language. For example, English [en], Arabic [ar] or German [de].  

We also label scripts explicitly, where a language is typically written in multiple scripts, such as Cyrillic or Latin. For example, Serbian (Cyrillic) [sr_Cyrl] and Serbian (Latin) [sr_Latn].

Each language + script combination is treated as a unit. (i.e. People do not mix different script in the same data set.) 
If a language is not typically written in multiple scripts, then the script sub-tag is omitted. For example, en_US or ko_KR.

Locales may also have regional variants. For example, English (US) [en_US] vs English (UK) [en_GB], or Serbian (Cyrillic, Montenegro) [sr_Cyrl_ME] vs Serbian (Cyrillic, Serbia) [sr_Cyrl_RS]. Regions may be countries such as China [CN], parts of countries such as Hong Kong [HK] or multi-country regions such as Latin America [419]. Also see Regional Variants.

The contents for the base language should be as widely usable (neutral) as possible, but must be usable without modification for its default content locale; this is the locale for the language’s default region, which is typically the region with the most speakers of the language. A default content locale has no data other than identity information, it inherits all data from its parent.
For example:
  • American English [en_US] is the default content locale for English [en]
  • German (Germany) [de_DE] is the default content locale for German [de].
  • Portuguese (Brazil) [pt_BR] is the default content locale for Portuguese [pt]
  • Serbian (Cyrillic) [sr_Cyrl] is the default content locale for Serbian [sr], which is the default for Serbian (Cyrillic, Seriba) [sr_Cyrl_RS] .
  • Arabic (World) [ar_001] is the default content locale for Arabic [ar], which is for Modern Standard Arabic.
Tips for linguists:
  1. Make sure the base language content is correct; as widely usable (neutral) as possible, but must be usable without modification in the default content locale. 
    For example:
    • English [en] locale content must be usable for English (US)
    • Arabic [ar] content must be usable for Arabic (world/neutral).
  2. Make sure that where there is a difference in a sub-region, the differences are represented in the regional-variant locale.
    For example: 
    • Spanish (Mexico) [es_MX] differences from Spanish (Latin America) [es_419]
    • Arabic (Egypt) [ar_EG] that are different from Arabic (World) [ar_001]
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