Publish Your WordPress Site In Another Language And Reach A Wider Global Audience!

Have you ever wondered if WordPress could set up to display your content in other languages?

The answer is… Yes, absolutely! You can set up a WordPress Blog in another Language or blog to provide your content in almost any international language you can imagine.

Although WordPress displays content in U.S. English by default, the software has the built-in capability to be used in any other language. WordPress also makes available themes, translation files, and support available for different international languages.

In this tutorial you will learn about WordPress’ international language capabilities and how to create a multilingual WordPress blog with the help of various WordPress plugins.

See the video below, and then complete the rest of this tutorial to learn how to translate your WordPress Blog into another language.

How To Publish Your WordPress In Another Language: Tutorial

The WordPress community has already translated WordPress into over 70 languages. You can set up a WordPress site or blog to display your content in any of the languages below as your site’s default language:

Azeri
Afrikaans
Albanian
Arabic
Bengali
Basque
Belarusian
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Chinese
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch

Esperanto
Estonian
Faroese
Finnish
French
Gaelic
Galician
Georgian
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Magyar
Icelandic

Indonesian
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kazakh
Khmer
Korean
Kyrgyz
Kurdish
Latvian
Lithuanian
Macedonian
Malagasy
Malay

Mongolian
Myanmar
Nias
Norwegian
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Sakha
Serbian
Sinhala
Slovak
Slovenian

Spanish
Sundanese
Swedish
Tajik
Tamil
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Uighur
Urdu
Uzbek
Vietnamese
Welsh
& more…

Using WordPress In Other Languages

To use WordPress in a language other than English, do the following first:

Check the above table, or go here to see if WordPress is available in your language of choice: http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_in_Your_Language
If the language you want is not listed, read the “Introduction” section in the above page for alternative options. These options include links to the WordPress Language File Repository and access to translation teams where you can check to see if a translation is currently in progress.

How To Use WordPress In Another Language

To install an international language version of WordPress, you have two choices:

You can follow the instructions provided in your language listed here: WordPress in Your Language. These will show you how to install WordPress in another language.
If specific instructions are not available, then follow the instructions below to manually install language files into your WordPress site or blog. This will convert (i.e. Translate) the key terms on your site into the language of your choice.

Manually Installing Language Files

Here are the steps you need to follow to manually install an international language version of WordPress on your site. This will convert the key terms used throughout your site, but not your actual content. For help translating your actual content, see the next section of this tutorial where we explore language translation plugins.

Note: If you make an error in the steps or you do not specify the correct language, WordPress will default back to English. If you need help with these steps, please feel free to contact us.

First, you need to download the .Mo language file (Machine Object file) for your language (see WordPress in Your Language for help on this). This file is typically included in the translated versions of WordPress …

Note: Do not try to edit .MO files directly (you need special software editors to do this).

The naming convention of the .MO files are based on the ISO-639 language code (e.g. pt for Portuguese) followed by the ISO-3166 country code (e.g. _PT for Portugal or _BR for Brazil). So, for example, the Brazilian Portuguese file would be called pt_BR.MO, and a non-specific Portuguese file would be called pt.mo.

Note: For a complete list of country codes and language codes, see the bottom of this page.

After downloading the language files to your computer, extract the contents and locate the .MO file (typically, this will be located inside the “WordPress > WP-content > languages” directory) …

Important: Always back up your WordPress files and database before making changes to your WordPress application! If you need help with this step, contact us or refer to our tutorials on how to back up your WordPress files and database.

Open up your FTP software and create a new folder in your /wp-content or /wp-includes server directory called /languages. Next, upload the .mo file to the languages folder you have just created in your server …

Next, download your wp-config.php to a location in your computer that you will be able to easily find. Note: It’s always a good idea to download an additional copy of files you plan to modify to a “backup” folder …

Open your wp-config.php file in a text editor (remember to always back up your files before making any changes to your site) and change the following line to add the filename of your language translation file …

Edit this line according to the .mo file you’ve just downloaded. For example to change your WordPress site to use Brazilian Portuguese, you would change the above line to the following:

You can also use the above method to change your WordPress default language from en_US to some other variant of English. For example …

Below is an actual example of a wp-config.php file that has just been modified as shown above …

Once you have added your language code, save your wp-config.php file.

Upload the modified wp-config.php file to your WordPress installation root directory, replacing the existing wp-config.php file …

You will be asked to confirm whether you want to overwrite the existing file on your server. Click the “Overwrite” button to proceed …

Once again, ensure that you have a full back up of your WordPress files and data before making any changes to your site. This way, if anything goes wrong, or you just want to restore WordPress to its previous configuration, you can easily reverse any damage by simply re-uploading a copy of the unmodified wp-config.php file you have just backed up to your server, overwriting the newly modified file.

Open your Internet browser and bring up your site. Your site or blog should now display many of the key terms in the newly-installed language …

Note: If you are dealing with multiple WordPress site installations (e.g. WordPress MultiSite), then you can either set the language on a per-blog basis through the “Site language” option in the Settings >General subpanel, or set the default language for the entire network under the Network Admin > Settings panel (“Default Language”).

Once you have converted the core WordPress terms on your site to the new language, the next step to having your site be published in a complete different language is to translate the content of the site itself. This can be partly achieved through the help of translation, or multilingual plugins.

We cover a number of WordPress plugins that will help translate your site’s content into another language in a separate tutorial here: WordPress Plugins – Multilingual Plugins For WordPress

Using WordPress Site in Another Language – Additional Information

Below are some additional information tables you may find useful regarding using WordPress in other languages:

Country Codes

The ISO 3166 standard defines two character codes for many countries and territories:

AD – Andorra AE – United Arab Emirates AF – Afghanistan AG – Antigua and Barbuda AI – Anguilla AL – Albania AM – Armenia AN – Netherlands Antilles AO – Angola AQ – Antarctica AR – Argentina AS – Samoa (American) AT – Austria AU – Australia AW – Aruba AX – Aaland Islands AZ – Azerbaijan BA – Bosnia and Herzegovina BB – Barbados BD – Bangladesh BE – Belgium BF – Burkina Faso BG – Bulgaria BH – Bahrain BI – Burundi BJ – Benin BM – Bermuda BN – Brunei BO – Bolivia BR – Brazil BS – Bahamas BT – Bhutan BV – Bouvet Island BW – Botswana BY – Belarus BZ – Belize CA – Canada CC – Cocos (Keeling) Islands CD – Congo (Dem Rep) CF – Central African Republic CG – Congo (Rep) CH – Switzerland CI – Côte dIvoire CK – Cook Islands CL – Chile CM – Cameroon CN – China CO – Colombia CR – Costa Rica CU – Cuba CV – Cape Verde CX – Christmas Island CY – Cyprus CZ – Czech Republic DE – Germany DJ – Djibouti DK – Denmark DM – Dominica DO – Dominican Republic DZ – Algeria EC – Ecuador EE – Estonia EG – Egypt EH – Western Sahara ER – Eritrea ES – Spain ET – Ethiopia FI – Finland FJ – Fiji FK – Falkland Islands FM – Micronesia FO – Faeroe Islands FR – France GA – Gabon GB – Britain (United Kingdom) GD – Grenada GE – Georgia GF – French Guiana GG – Guernsey

GH – Ghana GI – Gibraltar GL – Greenland GM – Gambia GN – Guinea GP – Guadeloupe GQ – Equatorial Guinea GR – Greece GS – South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands GT – Guatemala GU – Guam GW – Guinea-Bissau GY – Guyana HK – Hong Kong HM – Heard Island and McDonald Islands HN – Honduras HR – Croatia HT – Haiti HU – Hungary ID – Indonesia IE – Ireland IL – Israel IM – Isle of Man IN – India IO – British Indian Ocean Territory IQ – Iraq IR – Iran IS – Iceland IT – Italy JE – Jersey JM – Jamaica JO – Jordan JP – Japan KE – Kenya KG – Kyrgyzstan KH – Cambodia KI – Kiribati KM – Comoros KN – St Kitts and Nevis KP – Korea (North) KR – Korea (South) KW – Kuwait KY – Cayman Islands KZ – Kazakhstan LA – Laos LB – Lebanon LC – St Lucia LI – Liechtenstein LK – Sri Lanka LR – Liberia LS – Lesotho LT – Lithuania LU – Luxembourg LV – Latvia LY – Libya MA – Morocco MC – Monaco MD – Moldova ME – Montenegro MG – Madagascar MH – Marshall Islands MK – Macedonia ML – Mali MM – Myanmar (Burma) MN – Mongolia MO – Macao MP – Northern Mariana Islands MQ – Martinique MR – Mauritania MS – Montserrat MT – Malta MU – Mauritius MV – Maldives MW – Malawi MX – Mexico MY – Malaysia MZ – Mozambique NA – Namibia NC – New Caledonia NE – Niger NF – Norfolk Island NG – Nigeria NI – Nicaragua

NL – Netherlands NO – Norway NP – Nepal NR – Nauru NU – Niue NZ – New Zealand OM – Oman PA – Panama PE – Peru PF – French Polynesia PG – Papua New Guinea PH – Philippines PK – Pakistan PL – Poland PM – St Pierre and Miquelon PN – Pitcairn PR – Puerto Rico PS – Palestine PT – Portugal PW – Palau PY – Paraguay QA – Qatar RE – Reunion RO – Romania RS – Serbia RU – Russia RW – Rwanda SA – Saudi Arabia SB – Solomon Islands SC – Seychelles SD – Sudan SE – Sweden SG – Singapore SH – St Helena SI – Slovenia SJ – Svalbard and Jan Mayen SK – Slovakia SL – Sierra Leone SM – San Marino SN – Senegal SO – Somalia SR – Suriname ST – Sao Tome and Principe SV – El Salvador SY – Syria SZ – Swaziland TC – Turks and Caicos Islands TD – Chad TF – French Southern and Antarctic Lands TG – Togo TH – Thailand TJ – Tajikistan TK – Tokelau TL – Timor-Leste TM – Turkmenistan TN – Tunisia TO – Tonga TR – Turkey TT – Trinidad and Tobago TV – Tuvalu TW – Taiwan TZ – Tanzania UA – Ukraine UG – Uganda UM – US minor outlying islands US – United States UY – Uruguay UZ – Uzbekistan VA – Vatican City VC – St Vincent and the Grenadines VE – Venezuela VG – Virgin Islands (UK) VI – Virgin Islands (US) VN – Vietnam VU – Vanuatu WF – Wallis and Futuna WS – Samoa (Western) YE – Yemen YT – Mayotte ZA – South Africa ZM – Zambia ZW – Zimbabwe

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Language Codes

The ISO 639 standard defines two-letter codes for many languages, and three-letter codes for more rarely used languages:

Usual Language Codes
aa – Afar ab – Abkhazian ae – Avestan af – Afrikaans ak – Akan am – Amharic an – Aragonese ar – Arabic as – Assamese av – Avaric ay – Aymara az – Azerbaijani ba – Bashkir be – Belarusian bg – Bulgarian bh – Bihari bi – Bislama bm – Bambara bn – Bengali; Bangla bo – Tibetan br – Breton bs – Bosnian ca – Catalan ce – Chechen ch – Chamorro co – Corsican cr – Cree cs – Czech cu – Church Slavic cv – Chuvash cy – Welsh da – Danish de – German dv – Divehi; Maldivian dz – Dzongkha; Bhutani ee – Éwé el – Greek en – English eo – Esperanto es – Spanish et – Estonian eu – Basque fa – Persian ff – Fulah fi – Finnish fj – Fijian; Fiji fo – Faroese fr – French fy – Western Frisian ga – Irish gd – Scottish Gaelic gl – Galician gn – Guarani gu – Gujarati gv – Manx ha – Hausa he – Hebrew (formerly iw) hi – Hindi ho – Hiri Motu hr – Croatian ht – Haitian; Haitian Creole hu – Hungarian	hy – Armenian hz – Herero ia – Interlingua id – Indonesian (formerly in) ie – Interlingue; Occidental ig – Igbo ii – Sichuan Yi; Nuosu ik – Inupiak; Inupiaq io – Ido is – Icelandic it – Italian iu – Inuktitut ja – Japanese jv – Javanese ka – Georgian kg – Kongo ki – Kikuyu; Gikuyu kj – Kuanyama; Kwanyama kk – Kazakh kl – Kalaallisut; Greenlandic km – Central Khmer; Cambodian kn – Kannada ko – Korean kr – Kanuri ks – Kashmiri ku – Kurdish kv – Komi kw – Cornish ky – Kirghiz la – Latin lb – Letzeburgesch; Luxembourgish lg – Ganda li – Limburgish; Limburger; Limburgan ln – Lingala lo – Lao; Laotian lt – Lithuanian lu – Luba-Katanga lv – Latvian; Lettish mg – Malagasy mh – Marshallese mi – Maori mk – Macedonian ml – Malayalam mn – Mongolian mo – Moldavian mr – Marathi ms – Malay mt – Maltese my – Burmese na – Nauru nb – Norwegian Bokmål nd – Ndebele, North ne – Nepali ng – Ndonga nl – Dutch nn – Norwegian Nynorsk no – Norwegian nr – Ndebele, South nv – Navajo; Navaho ny – Chichewa; Nyanja oc – Occitan; Provençal	oj – Ojibwa om – (Afan) Oromo or – Oriya os – Ossetian; Ossetic pa – Panjabi; Punjabi pi – Pali pl – Polish ps – Pashto; Pushto pt – Portuguese qu – Quechua rm – Romansh rn – Rundi; Kirundi ro – Romanian ru – Russian rw – Kinyarwanda sa – Sanskrit sc – Sardinian sd – Sindhi se – Northern Sami sg – Sango; Sangro si – Sinhala; Sinhalese sk – Slovak sl – Slovenian sm – Samoan sn – Shona so – Somali sq – Albanian sr – Serbian ss – Swati; Siswati st – Sesotho; Sotho, Southern su – Sundanese sv – Swedish sw – Swahili ta – Tamil te – Telugu tg – Tajik th – Thai ti – Tigrinya tk – Turkmen tl – Tagalog tn – Tswana; Setswana to – Tonga tr – Turkish ts – Tsonga tt – Tatar tw – Twi ty – Tahitian ug – Uighur uk – Ukrainian ur – Urdu uz – Uzbek ve – Venda vi – Vietnamese vo – Volapük; Volapuk wa – Walloon wo – Wolof xh – Xhosa yi – Yiddish (formerly ji) yo – Yoruba za – Zhuang zh – Chinese zu – Zulu
Rare Language Codes
ace – Achinese awa – Awadhi bal – Baluchi ban – Balinese bej – Beja; Bedawiyet bem – Bemba bho – Bhojpuri bik – Bikol bin – Bini; Edo bug – Buginese ceb – Cebuano din – Dinka doi – Dogri fil – Filipino; Pilipino fon – Fon gon – Gondi gsw – Swiss German; Alemannic; Alsatian hil – Hiligaynon hmn – Hmong ilo – Iloko	kab – Kabyle kam – Kamba kbd – Kabardian kmb – Kimbundu kok – Konkani kru – Kurukh lua – Luba-Lulua luo – Luo (Kenya and Tanzania) mad – Madurese mag – Magahi mai – Maithili mak – Makasar man – Mandingo men – Mende min – Minangkabau mni – Manipuri mos – Mossi mwr – Marwari nap – Neapolitan nso – Pedi; Sepedi; Northern Sotho	nym – Nyamwezi nyn – Nyankole pag – Pangasinan pam – Pampanga; Kapampangan raj – Rajasthani sas – Sasak sat – Santali scn – Sicilian shn – Shan sid – Sidamo srr – Serer suk – Sukuma sus – Susu tem – Timne tiv – Tiv tum – Tumbuka umb – Umbundu wal – Walamo war – Waray yao – Yao

Congratulations … you have completed the tutorial on using WordPress in other languages.

WordPress is huge and can sometimes be overwhelming about where to start. As you move on to the next Page, you will have a clearer picture of where to start and progress to building a professional WordPress Site.