# Can I add additional languages to the Language Selector?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-add-additional-languages-to-the-language-selector/409353
**Category:** Support
**Tags:** multi-lingual, ai, content-localization
**Created:** [August 5, 2026, 9:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-add-additional-languages-to-the-language-selector/409353 "2026-08-05T09:37:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Karthik\_K1](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Karthik_K1)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2026, 9:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-add-additional-languages-to-the-language-selector/409353/1 "2026-08-05T09:37:35Z")
**How do I add languages to the language selector that aren’t listed under “Content Localization Supported Locales”?**
I’d like to add several Indian languages so users can select their preferred language and have AI automatically translate forum posts for them.
Since AI can translate between virtually any languages, limiting the language selector to only the predefined supported locales doesn’t seem ideal for this use case.
Is there a way to add additional languages to the selector, or is this limitation intentional? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
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### Author:  [@nat](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nat)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2026, 1:19pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-add-additional-languages-to-the-language-selector/409353/2 "2026-08-05T13:19:42Z")
I think there are two things being conflated here.
A model may be able to translate content into many languages, but this language selector changes the user’s Discourse locale, including both the _user interface_ and user content.
For example, our AI feature may be able to translate a post into Hindi, but Discourse’s buttons, menus, and labels would remain untranslated because Hindi is simply not currently a supported Discourse locale. The selector changes the language of the whole site, not just the post content.
The options are limited by design to locales supported by Discourse’s i18n system, with the appropriate language labels, interface translations, pluralization rules, and fallbacks.
You can create a plugin - it can register an additional locale, but you would need to provide the proper locale support for all the buttons and labels through i18n, not our AI translations feature.
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2026, 3:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-add-additional-languages-to-the-language-selector/409353/3 "2026-08-05T15:04:54Z")
I’m curious, can you list which languages you’d want to see there?
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### Author:  [@Karthik\_K1](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Karthik_K1)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2026, 4:12am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-add-additional-languages-to-the-language-selector/409353/4 "2026-08-06T04:12:47Z")
I’d like to see Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam—which are native to over 750 million people. To clarify, I just want the actual posts to be translated using AI; I don’t need to worry about translating the Discourse interface like buttons and labels.
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### Author:  [@nat](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nat)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2026, 6:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-add-additional-languages-to-the-language-selector/409353/5 "2026-08-06T06:30:36Z")
Personally, I would prefer our core app to keep to our standard here
> [@How to add a new language](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-add-a-new-language/14970/86):
>
> We will add new languages when the translation progress for core is at least at 50%.
> [@Add Uyghur language](https://meta.discourse.org/t/add-uyghur-language/309466):
>
> Uyghur language translation reached 53% on crowdin, Could you add Uyghur language to Discourse? Thanks!
This helps contribute back to our open source app.
* * *
Alternatively if you’re self-hosted, you can also create a plugin that adds those languages
> [@Add a new locale from plugin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/add-a-new-locale-from-plugin/78962):
>
> Usually the best way to add a new language to Discourse is by creating a pull request as described in “[How to add a new language](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-add-a-new-language/14970)”. The following guide is for you, if you want to use a language that can’t be added to core right now. Adding a locale that extends an existing locale Let’s say you want to add a Spanish locale for Mexico (es\_MX). Discourse already ships a Spanish locale (es), so this is quite easy. Your plugin’s directory structure should look like this: custom-locales ├── assets…
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2026, 6:32am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-add-additional-languages-to-the-language-selector/409353/6 "2026-08-06T06:32:20Z")
Then the plugin Nat suggested seems like a good solution. You use it to add the locales, but don’t spend time translating Discourse for them.
Though it would be great to also have the Discourse interface available for all the users speaking those languages. So maybe the plugin works as a short-term solution, and you and your community try to translate the interface on Crowdin so the experience becomes even better for them. [Contributing translations to Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/t/contributing-translations-to-discourse/14882)
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### Author:  [@darkpixlz](https://meta.discourse.org/u/darkpixlz)
#### Post date: [September 16, 2026, 8:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-add-additional-languages-to-the-language-selector/409353/7 "2026-09-16T20:42:03Z")
8 posts were split to a new topic: [Posting in a disabled language](https://meta.discourse.org/t/posting-in-a-disabled-language/412608)