Multilingual and i18n

Ananke is fully multilingual. It ships interface translations for many languages and works with Hugo’s standard multilingual features.

Configure languages #

Declare your languages in the configuration. Each language has a name, a code, a weight (controls order), and its own title:

# config/_default/languages.toml

[en]
languageName = "English"
languageCode = "en-gb"
weight = 1
title = "Example site"

[de]
languageName = "Deutsch"
languageCode = "de-de"
weight = 2
title = "Beispielseite"

The language with the lowest weight is the default. Per-language params can override site parameters — for example a translated read_more_copy (see General content features).

Translated content files #

Create a translation by adding the language code to the filename, next to the original:

content/about.md
content/about.de.md

Hugo pairs these as translations of the same page and links them in the language switcher. The same pattern works for section index files (_index.md / _index.de.md).

Translation fallback #

If a page is not translated into the current language, Hugo does not invent one — that page simply does not exist in that language, and the language switcher only offers languages where a translation is present.

Interface strings (button labels, “read more”, and so on) do fall back: if a string is missing in the active language, Ananke uses the default language’s value, and ultimately English.

Translating menus #

Define a menu per language so navigation labels are localised. Put each language’s menu under that language:

# config/_default/menus.toml

[[en.main]]
name = "About"
pageRef = "/about/"
weight = 10

[[de.main]]
name = "Über uns"
pageRef = "/about/"
weight = 10

See Menus for the available entry fields.

Overriding theme interface strings #

Ananke’s interface text comes from translation files in the theme’s i18n/ directory, in this format:

# i18n/en.toml (in the theme)

[readMore]
other = "read more"

To change a string, create an i18n/<language>.toml file in your own project with the same key. Your value overrides the theme’s:

# i18n/en.toml (in your site)

[readMore]
other = "Continue reading"

[!NOTE] Only override the keys you want to change — you do not need to copy the whole file. Do not edit the theme’s i18n/ files directly; your project’s i18n/ takes precedence and survives theme updates.