Locale

A locale is the language and region pair (for example en or tr) that decides which copy and number formats the guest sees. MobiTaste ships with two locales at launch: English and Turkish, each first-class.

What it means in operation

Every page on the marketing site and every screen in the guest app has two versions: /en/... and /tr/.... The system picks the right one from a cookie, the browser’s Accept-Language header, or the user’s saved preference, in that order. Number and date formatting follow the locale too: a price renders as 45,00 ₺ in Turkish and $45.00 in English. The locale also drives allergen flags, terms of service translations, and order receipt language. On the menu side, owners write each item name and description in both locales in the dashboard, and the right one shows by guest.

Why it matters

A locale is not a language. Turkish in Istanbul and Turkish for a Turkish-speaking diaspora in Berlin share copy but may need different defaults (TL vs EUR pricing). English in the UK and English in the US share copy but format dates differently. A SaaS that treats locale as “just language” produces awkward menus: a US price with a comma decimal, a Turkish menu in formal you-pronoun where a Bodrum cafe expects informal. The buyer’s question is whether the vendor handles both axes, not just translation.

Related terms

• hreflang: the tag that tells search engines which locale a page belongs to.
• Slug: the URL element that often differs across locales.
• Schema markup: the JSON-LD that declares the locale to crawlers.