CLDR Version 28 Released

Unicode CLDR 28 provides an update to the key building blocks for software supporting the world's languages. This data is used by allmajor software systems for their software internationalization and localization, adapting software to the conventions of different languages for such common software tasks. The following summarizes the main improvements in the release.

General locale data.Overall, about 5% of the data items in this release are new (see Growth), while about 8% have corrections. Notable changes include a major review of and improvement to Spanish locales for Latin America; the addition of two new "modern-coverage" locales (Belarusian and Irish); and moving certain data from en_GB to en_001 for improved quality and reduced data size in locales that use en_GB conventions.Formatting.There are a number of new units and types of formats, with a major revision to the day period rules—preferred for many languages instead of AM/PM ("10:30 at night")—with localizations; the addition of compact formatting for currencies ("€10M", "€10 million"), and the addition of more unit measures, including 7 new general units (duration-century), 21 new per-unit types, 4 new units for measuring personal age (needed for some languages), and new coordinate units for formatting latitude and longitude across languages ("10°N").Identifiers.The new features extend the ability to specify subregions of countries, validate identifiers, and customize locales, including the addition of subdivisions of countries, such as Scotland and California (localized names are not yet present, except for English); the addition of validity data for currency codes, measurement units, and locale identifier elements (allowing validation of Unicode language and locale identifiers without requiring BCP47 data); the addition of seven-u-extension keys and corresponding types to allow customization of locales ("cf" for specifying standard vs accounting currency formats), and the clarification of the specification of identifiers, especially for validity testing.The specification and charts have also been updated.