What is fallback language?
Updated over a week ago

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Lingohub's fallback language feature is an excellent tool for localization. A fallback language is a language that will be used when a text segment is empty upon export, e.g., due to a missing translation. When activated, fallback languages ensure that empty text segments will be filled with content from another language. Fallback languages are settings for target languages only.

How does the fallback language feature work?

The fallback language feature activates upon starting an export. Two conditions must be met for fallback languages to be activated:

  • A fallback language must have been set for the target language(s).

  • One or more text segments of the target language(s) are empty.

When exporting, the fallback language feature will fill the empty text segments with text from the defined fallback language. Rest assured that no empty text segments are exported.

The example below illustrates how the fallback language feature works:

In the example we use British English (en-GB) as a source language and localize our content for German (de-DE) and Austrian German (de-AT). Before the export, the text segment in the de-AT is empty.

Text segment

Language

Fallback language

-

de-AT (=target language)

de-DE

Kaffee

de-DE (=target language)

en-GB

coffee

en-GB (=source language)

-

Upon exporting, Lingohub will automatically detect that the text segment for de-AT is empty. It will check for the fallback language in German (de-DE), see that it is not empty and export the following:

Text segment

Language

Kaffee

de-AT

Kaffee

de-DE

coffee

en-GB

If your fallback language is also empty, will be used the fallback language of your fallback language. Lingohub automatically searches for fallback languages until the source language has been reached. The example above would mean that if de-DE is also empty, Lingohub will export coffee for all three languages.

If the source language text segment is also empty, the text segment will either be skipped or it will be exported as empty.

More information about fallback languages advices and use cases read in this article.

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