ICU LogoUnicode® ICU 76 has just been released. ICU is the premier library for software internationalization, used by a wide array of companies and organizations to support the world's languages, implementing both the latest version of the Unicode Standard and of the Unicode locale data (CLDR).

ICU 76 updates to Unicode 16 (blog), including new characters and scripts, emoji, collation & IDNA changes, and corresponding APIs and implementations. It also updates to CLDR 46 (beta blog) locale data with new locales, significant updates to existing locales, and various additions and corrections. For example, the CLDR and Unicode default sort orders are now very nearly the same.

Most of the java.time (Temporal) types can now be formatted directly using the existing ICU4J date/time formatting classes.

There are some new APIs to make ICU easier to use with modern C++ and Java patterns. Most of the C/C++ APIs added for this purpose are implemented as C++ header-only APIs, and usable on top of binary stable C APIs, which is a first for ICU.

The Java and C++ technology preview implementations of the (also in tech preview) CLDR MessageFormat 2.0 specification have been updated to match recent changes.

ICU 76 and CLDR 46 are major releases, including a new version of Unicode and major locale data improvements.

For details, please see
https://unicode-org.github.io/icu/download/76.html.

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Postal Horn emojiUnicode CLDR 46 is now available and has been integrated into version 76 of ICU.

[image] The Unicode CLDR Survey Tool is open for submission for version 46. CLDR provides key building blocks for software to support the world’s languages (dates, times, numbers, sort-order, etc.) All major browsers and all modern mobile phones use CLDR for language support. (See Who uses CLDR?)

Via the online Survey Tool, contributors supply data for their languages — data that is widely used to support much of the world’s software. This data is also a factor in determining which languages are supported on mobile phones and computer operating systems.

Version 46 is focusing on:

• Unicode 16 additions: new emoji, script names, collation data (Chinese & Japanese), …
• Emoji search keywords: Expanding keyword coverage to make it easier for users to find the right emoji
• New Languages targeting Basic:
  • Ewe (ee),
  • Ga (gaa)
  • Kinyarwanda (rw)
  • Northern Sotho (nso)
  • Oromo (om),
  • Sesotho (st)
  • Setswana (tn),
• Up-leveling: Akan (ak)

Submission of new data opened recently, and is slated to finish on June 11. The new data then enters a vetting phase, where contributors work out which of the supplied data for each field is best. That vetting phase is slated to finish on July 1. A public alpha makes the draft data available around August 28, and the final release targets October 16.

Each new locale starts with a small set of Core data, such as a list of characters used in the language. Submitters of those locales need to bring the coverage up to Basic level (very basic basic dates, times, numbers, and endonyms) during the next submission cycle.

Once a language reaches Basic coverage, it has the minimum support for use in language selection, such as on mobile devices. In the next submission cycle, the name for that language is also added for translation for all languages at Modern coverage.

If you would like to contribute missing data for your language, see Survey Tool Accounts. For more information on contributing to CLDR, see the CLDR Information Hub.

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