i18n, a11y, i14y,... what do these acronyms stand for?

These acronyms are called "numeronyms". They are abbreviations in which several letters are replaced by a number in order to shorten the word and thus allow for faster written communication.

Numeronyms can be used in two different ways:

• The number can form the same sound as the letters it replaces, as in the term K7 for example, this is called an allo-graph.
• The number represents the quantity of letters it replaces, this is the form most commonly used in computing.

A bit of history

From the 60s to the 90s, the company DEC was a major player in the computing market in the United States, notably known for their most popular machines: the PDP-8 and PDP-11.

At the time, one of their newly arrived employees, Jan Scherpenhuizen, was assigned an email account with the username S12n, because his name was too long for the system.

Over the years, the concept of abbreviating names that were too long in this way was considered amusing and quickly spread within DEC. It was from 1985 that the term "internationalization" was first written in the form "i18n", a convention that would later be widely adopted, and extended to other terms.

To find out more, I invite you to read the detailed article on the i18nguy blog!

Meanings and definitions

a11y - Accessibility

Accessibility refers to making a tool accessible to the entire population, regardless of each person's physical, intellectual, or technological abilities and particularities.

Accessibility is as vast a topic as there are people on Earth, and if you don't know where to start I invite you to read my introductory article titled "Introduction to web accessibility: the issue of colors".

i18n - Internationalization

Internationalization refers to the technical process of adapting a tool so that it can be deployed in several countries and in several languages without any further technical modifications taking place afterward.

For a website, this includes the domain name (subdomain or URL prefix), setting up a translation module for static elements, but also a strategy for loading specific content depending on language and culture, a different graphic layout, etc...

L10n - Localization

Unlike internationalization, localization is a linguistic process, not a technical one. This process involves adapting the content of a site or application to fit the language but also the culture and customs of each population.

g11n - Globalization

Globalization simply groups together the aspects of internationalization and localization under a single banner. This term is more often used in project management and strategy than in technical work.

i14y - Interoperability

Interoperability consists of ensuring that different systems can communicate with each other, or that transmitted data can be easily imported.

This field may notably involve the creation of APIs, modules, or file formats that work, integrate, or run in several different environments.