Skills on AI

Locale Rw 001

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Use when working with the Kinyarwanda locale (`rw-001`) — its endonym Ikinyarwanda, Latin script, left-to-right (LTR) direction, or spoken-population data. Reference data and translation guidance (register, grammar, idiom, typography) for this specific locale; see [[locale]] for general i18n/l10n concepts (BCP 47, plural rules, RTL) that apply across all locales.

Reference data for the Kinyarwanda locale — endonym Ikinyarwanda, written in the Latin script, left-to-right (LTR).

Identifiers

  • BCP 47 tag: rw-001
  • ISO 639-1: rw
  • ISO 639-3: kin
  • Script: Latn (Latin)
  • Region: 001 (World)
  • Text direction: ltr — left-to-right (LTR)

Speakers (approximate)

  • L1 (native): 15,000,000
  • L2 (additional): 3,000,000
  • L1+L2 (total): 18,000,000

Regional variants

This is the base/macro locale for Kinyarwanda. Region-specific variants in this dataset:

Pluralization

CLDR has no explicit plural rule defined for this language; it falls back to the root rule of a single other category (1 form) — every count uses the same word form, as in Japanese or Chinese.

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Kinyarwanda (Ikinyarwanda) is a Bantu language of Rwanda, an official language with English, French, and Swahili. It has noun classes, tone, and a Latin spelling. The Rwanda Academy of Language and Culture (RALC) sets the orthography. See Locale Rw Rw.

Translate ideas, not words.

  • Kinyarwanda verbs carry subject, tense, object, and mood in one word. Restructure English sentences; do not translate word for word.
  • Nouns belong to classes (umu-/aba-, iki-/ibi-, in-/in-, and others) with concord on adjectives, verbs, and possessives.
  • Use terminology approved by the RALC and the government (for example from ICT and legal glossaries) rather than raw English or French borrowings where one exists.
  • Re-express idioms and proverbs (imigani) by meaning.

Register.

  • Wowe is "you" (singular) and mwe is the plural; the plural is used for respect with elders and strangers. Greetings are important (Muraho, Mwiriwe, Amakuru?). Public text is polite and uses titles.
  • UI commands use the imperative, with the plural form -ni as a courtesy.

Orthography and typography.

  • Tone and vowel length are not written in standard spelling. Follow the RALC rules for word division and capitalization.
  • Dates 17 Ukwakira 2026 (Ukwakira is October); currency Rwandan franc (Frw); 24-hour clock.

Common pitfalls

  • Wrong noun-class concords.
  • Using French or English word order.
  • Using loan terms that RALC has replaced.

Learn more

  • Locale for BCP 47 identifiers, locale-sensitive formatting, pluralization, and text-direction concepts that apply across all locales.
  • Unicode Messageformat for writing plural/selection messages correctly for this locale's grammar.
  • Rwanda Academy of Language and Culture (RALC)
  • Unicode CLDR locale data for rw (https://cldr.unicode.org)

View locale-rw-001/SKILL.md on GitHub