Multilingual support

Edoxen supports multilingual resolution sets using the glossarist-style localizations[] pattern. Each Resolution carries its language-agnostic admin fields (identifier, doi, urn, agenda_item, dates) plus a localizations[] array with one entry per language.

Each Localization declares its language_code (ISO 639-3 three-letter code) and script (ISO 15924 four-letter code), then carries the monolingual title, subject, message, considerations, actions, and approvals.

Why localizations[]

There are three ways to represent multilingual content in a single YAML file. Edoxen chose the third:

1. Per-row language tag

resolutions:
  - identifier: X
    language: en
    title: English title
  - identifier: X
    language: fr
    title: Titre français

Cons: Duplicates the admin fields. Hard to keep EN and FR rows in sync. Drift is invisible.

2. {content, lang} arrays on each text field

resolutions:
  - identifier: X
    title:
      - { content: English title, lang: en }
      - { content: Titre français,  lang: fr }
    actions:
      - type: decides
        message:
          - { content: English body, lang: en }
          - { content: Corps français, lang: fr }

Cons: Noisy. Every text field carries the language list. The verb type is canonically English regardless, so the language tag is redundant on it.

3. Glossarist-style localizations[] array (Edoxen's choice)

resolutions:
  - identifier: X
    doi: 10.x/y
    dates:
      - { start: '2025-10-14', kind: decision }
    localizations:
      - language_code: eng
        script: Latn
        title: English title
        actions:
          - type: decides
            message: English body
      - language_code: fra
        script: Latn
        title: Titre français
        actions:
          - type: decides
            message: Corps français

Pros:

• Language-agnostic fields declared once.
• Translators can compare EN+FR side-by-side in the same file.
• Adding a third language is one new entry per resolution.
• The action type (canonical English verb) is declared once.
• Forward-compatible with any new ISO 639-3 language code.

Conventions

Standard	Used for	Example
ISO 639-3	Language codes (3-letter)	eng, fra, deu, jpn
ISO 15924	Script codes (4-letter)	Latn, Cyrl, Hant, Arab
ISO 3166-1 alpha-2	Country codes	FR, DE, JP
IATA	City codes (3-letter)	PAR, BER, TYO

Sample bilingual YAML

metadata:
  title: 39th CIML Meeting — Decisions
  title_localized:
    - { language_code: eng, script: Latn, title: 39th CIML Meeting — Decisions }
    - { language_code: fra, script: Latn, title: 39e réunion du CIML — Décisions }
  dates:
    - { start: '2004-10-26', end: '2004-10-29', kind: meeting }
  venue: Berlin, Germany
  city: BER
  country_code: DE
  source_urls:
    - { ref: https://oiml.org/en/.../english.pdf, format: pdf, language_code: eng }
    - { ref: https://oiml.org/fr/.../french.pdf,  format: pdf, language_code: fra }

resolutions:
  - identifier: CIML/2004/1
    doi: 10.63493/resolutions/ciml200401
    urn: urn:oiml:doc:ciml:resolution:2004-1
    dates:
      - { start: '2004-10-26', kind: decision }
    localizations:
      - language_code: eng
        script: Latn
        title: Approval of the minutes of the 38th CIML Meeting
        subject: CIML
        actions:
          - type: approves
            message: |
              The Committee approved the minutes of its 38th Meeting
              without modification.
      - language_code: fra
        script: Latn
        title: Approbation du procès-verbal de la 38e réunion du CIML
        subject: CIML
        actions:
          - type: approves
            message: |
              Le Comité a approuvé le procès-verbal de sa 38e réunion
              sans modification.

See also

• Localization model
• SourceUrl model
• Glossarist concept-model — the inspiration for this pattern.