Locale

local Locale = Quark.Locale

local texts = assert(Locale.New({
    Fallback = "en",
    Resources = { en = ENGLISH, de = GERMAN },
}))

Chat.SendMessage(player, texts:Format(player:GetValue("language") or "en", "kills", { count = 3 }))

Translations with Project Fluent, the localization system of Firefox. Fluent handles plurals, gender and other grammar per language inside the translation files, so scripts only pass values and translators decide how each language says it.

Fluent files

welcome = Welcome, { $name }!

kills = { $count ->
    [one] { $count } kill
   *[other] { $count } kills
}

menu = Menu
    .title = Main menu

welcome = Willkommen, { $name }!

kills = { $count ->
    [one] { $count } Abschuss
   *[other] { $count } Abschüsse
}

Numbers select the plural category of the language (zero, one, two, few, many, other), Russian for example needs one, few and many. The Fluent syntax guide covers selectors, terms, attributes and more. nanos world packages can only load .lua files, so keep each language in a Lua file that stores the Fluent text in a long string (ENGLISH = [[ ... ]]) and load it with Package.Require, or fetch the texts from a database or over HTTP.

Locales

Locale.New(options?) returns a set of translations, or nil, message when a resource has syntax errors.

Option
Resources	table of language tags (en, de, pt-BR) and Fluent sources
Fallback	language used when a message is missing in the requested one
Isolating	wrap arguments in Unicode isolation marks for mixed left to right and right to left text (false)

Method
:Format(language, id, arguments?)	text, found, problems
:Bind(language)	a function (id, arguments?) formatting in that language
:Add(language, source)	adds messages, replacing existing ones with the same id. Returns true or nil, message
:Has(language, id)	whether the message exists in the language or its fallbacks
:Negotiate(requested)	the best available language for a tag, a list of tags or an Accept-Language header
:GetLocales(), :GetFallback()

Format looks for the message in the requested language (de-AT), its base language (de) and the fallback, in that order. Attributes are addressed as "menu.title". When no language has the message it returns the id and false. problems describes missing arguments and similar issues, the text is still returned with the missing parts marked, like Welcome, {$name}!.

local function Translate(player, id, arguments)
    return texts:Format(player:GetValue("language") or "en", id, arguments)
end

Plural rules and negotiation

Locale.PluralCategory(language, number, type?) returns the plural category of a number, for the Cardinal (default, "3 apples") or Ordinal type ("3rd place"): Locale.PluralCategory("en", 3, "Ordinal") is "few", as in "3rd".

Locale.Negotiate(requested, available, fallback?) picks the best match from a list of language tags without a locale object, for example to choose a language from the Accept-Language header of an HTTP request.