IDN ccTLDs: Non-Latin Script Country Domains

## The Multilingual Internet The original Domain Name System was designed with ASCII characters — the Latin alphabet, digits, and hyphens. For English-speaking internet users, this was invisible infrastructure. For the hundreds of millions of people whose native scripts are Arabic, Chinese, Devanagari, Cyrillic, or any of the dozens of other scripts used to write human languages, it created a fundamental barrier: the internet's addressing system was effectively opaque to them without learning a foreign script. Internationalized Domain Names (IDN (Internationalized Domain Name)s) address this problem by extending DNS (Domain Name System) to support Unicode characters, allowing domain names in virtually any script. **IDN ccTLDs** — the country code TLD equivalents for non-Latin scripts — are the most significant application of this technology, enabling countries to offer their citizens entirely native-script internet addresses. TLD Finder ## Technical Foundation: Punycode The technical mechanism underlying IDN support is Punycode, an encoding scheme that converts Unicode strings into ASCII-compatible strings that the existing DNS infrastructure can handle. A Chinese domain like `例子.cn` is stored in DNS as `xn--fsqu00a.cn` — the ASCII-compatible encoding (ACE) that nameservers can process. Modern browsers display the Unicode form to users, transparently converting to and from punycode in the background. The conversion is invisible to ordinary users, but it means: 1. IDN domains work with existing DNS infrastructure without modification 2. Intermediate systems that don't support IDN still receive valid ASCII strings 3. Users see native-script addresses in their browsers while the underlying system remains ASCII-based Some older software and email systems do not handle punycode transparently, creating occasional compatibility issues particularly with email addresses on IDN domains. ## ICANN's IDN ccTLD Program ICANN began delegating IDN TLD (Internationalized Domain Name TLD)s for country codes in 2010 following years of technical development and policy consultation. The delegation process for IDN ccTLDs differs from the standard ccTLD delegation process: 1. A country submits an application to IANA requesting an IDN string corresponding to their country name in a specific script 2. The application must demonstrate that the proposed string is an appropriate representation of the country name in that script and that there is no ambiguity with existing delegations 3. IANA delegates the string after review, and the same national registry operator that manages the Latin-script ccTLD typically operates the IDN variant As of 2026, over 60 IDN ccTLD strings have been delegated, covering primarily: - **Arabic script:** Middle Eastern and North African countries - **Chinese script:** China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau - **Cyrillic script:** Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and others - **Devanagari and other South Asian scripts:** India (multiple scripts), Nepal - **Other scripts:** Thai, Georgian, Armenian, Hebrew, Korean (Hangul), and more ## Major IDN ccTLDs by Script ### Arabic Script Arabic is written right-to-left, using letters that change form depending on their position in a word — a script whose rendering complexity requires significant browser and application support. Arabic IDN ccTLDs serve the Arab world's 400+ million people: - `.مصر` — Egypt (Misr) - `.السعودية` — Saudi Arabia - `.الإمارات` — United Arab Emirates - `.قطر` — Qatar - `.الأردن` — Jordan - `.المغرب` — Morocco - `.السودان` — Sudan These delegations allow Arab government agencies, businesses, and civil society organizations to operate entirely Arabic-script web presences, including email addresses, for audiences who read Arabic natively. ### Chinese Script China operates two IDN ccTLD strings corresponding to the country's name in Chinese: - `.中国` — China in simplified Chinese (mainland China standard) - `.中國` — China in traditional Chinese (used in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau contexts) Both are operated by CNNIC (same operator as `.cn`). Registrations under these IDN extensions are subject to the same documentation requirements as `.cn`. Hong Kong and Taiwan also operate their own IDN ccTLDs: - `.香港` — Hong Kong (traditional Chinese) - `.台灣` and `.台湾` — Taiwan (traditional and simplified) The Chinese-script IDN landscape illustrates a political complexity unique to the Chinese internet: mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau all use Chinese script but have different political statuses, different registries, and different content regulatory environments. ### Cyrillic Script Russia's Cyrillic IDN ccTLD `.рф` (RF, abbreviation of Российская Федерация — Russian Federation) was delegated in 2010 and has been actively promoted as an alternative to `.ru` (the Latin-script ccTLD). With over **1 million registrations**, `.рф` is one of the most successful non-Latin ccTLDs by volume. The Russian government and state institutions use `.рф` extensively for official websites, and Russian consumers show meaningful adoption — though `.ru` remains larger due to its longer history and the Latin-script internet's compatibility with more software systems. Other Cyrillic IDN ccTLDs include: - `.укр` — Ukraine - `.бел` — Belarus - `.мкд` — North Macedonia - `.срб` — Serbia ### South Asian Scripts India operates the largest portfolio of IDN ccTLDs of any country, reflecting the constitutional recognition of 22 official languages across multiple scripts: - `.भारत` — India in Devanagari (Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit, and others) - `.ভারত` — India in Bengali script - `.ਭਾਰਤ` — India in Gurmukhi (Punjabi) - `.ભારત` — India in Gujarati - `.ଭାରତ` — India in Odia - `.இந்தியா` — India in Tamil - `.భారత్` — India in Telugu - `.ಭಾರತ` — India in Kannada - `.ഭാരതം` — India in Malayalam - `.భారత్` — India in Telugu This multilingual approach reflects India's linguistic diversity but also creates operational complexity: nine different registry strings for one country, each serving a different linguistic community. Nepal operates `.नेपाल` in Devanagari script. ## Adoption Challenges Despite the technical availability of IDN ccTLDs, adoption has been slower than expected for several reasons: **Software compatibility:** Email clients, business software, and older applications do not always handle IDN email addresses (e.g., an email address on a `.рф` domain) correctly. The punycode conversion that works seamlessly in browsers does not always propagate correctly through email systems. **Keyboard input:** Users must switch keyboard layouts to type IDN domains, which can be counter-intuitive if they are used to typing Latin-character URLs even in their native-language browsing sessions. **Awareness:** Many internet users in IDN ccTLD countries are unaware that native-script domains exist or how to access them, particularly in markets where Latin-script `.com` dominates consumer awareness. **Mixed-script inconsistency:** A fully native-script URL requires that every element — domain, path, query parameters — be in the native script. Mixed-script URLs (e.g., a Cyrillic domain with a Latin-character path) are technically valid but visually inconsistent. ## Strategic Implications For governments, IDN ccTLDs are primarily a digital inclusion initiative: enabling citizens who do not read Latin script to navigate government services and official institutions in their own script. For businesses, IDN ccTLD registration is typically defensive rather than operational — preventing brand squatting in the IDN namespace while maintaining primary operations on Latin-script domains. For internet policy, IDN ccTLDs represent a genuine effort to make the internet's infrastructure multilingual — a significant governance achievement even if adoption has been gradual. See .cn: Navigating China's Controlled Domain Space for details on how China's IDN ccTLD registrations interact with the `.cn` registration and ICP filing requirements.