1.1.3 Multilingual Environment

In a multilingual environment, a locale can support multiple scripts and multiple cultural attributes, giving an application greater control over text manipulation. For example, a document containing text in multiple scripts can sort text according to the sort order of each script rather than the current locale.

In the Chinese/Russian example above, the Chinese locale sorting rules apply to the Chinese text and the Russian sorting rules apply to the Russian text.

The multilingual environment is closest to the ideal of multilingual computing. An application uses locale data from numerous locales, while at the same time allowing easy text manipulation in a variety of scripts. All users can easily work in their own language and be understood by others around the world.