I sell foreign language products. However, I am constantly dismayed by the languages that are not included - some are unusual like Marathi, Punjabi, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, but others like Urdu and Latin should be included and according to Sidekick, if it is not already a base language, it cannot be added!
Marathi, Punjabi are from India are you selling anything to that area?
Hey @Gapolyglot
hope you’re doing well!
Shopify’s native language support is definitely limited, especially for languages like Urdu, Punjabi, Marathi, and Gaelic. If a language isn’t available as a base language, Shopify doesn’t currently let you simply add it, so you’ll need a translation app or custom implementation.
Hi @Gapolyglot
I completely understand your frustration. Shopify’s supported language list can be quite limiting, especially for stores that sell products in multiple or less commonly supported languages.
If a language isn’t available as one of Shopify’s supported base languages, it can be difficult to add it natively through the standard language settings. However, depending on what you need to translate, there may be workarounds using custom translations, theme code, metafields, or a translation app.
For languages like Urdu, Marathi, Punjabi, and Latin, having native support would definitely make Shopify more useful for merchants targeting those audiences. Hopefully Shopify expands its supported language list in the future.
Best regards,
Devcoder 
I do not need translations, I just need the ability to add supported languages.
Sidekick is right, and I know that is frustrating. Shopify only lets you publish languages that are on its base list. There is no setting to add a brand new one like Latin or Irish Gaelic, so that is a real platform limit, not something you are missing on your end.
One partial workaround exists, but I want to be honest about where it breaks. You can publish a supported language you are not using (say one you will never sell in) as a second language, then use Translate and Adapt to overwrite all of that language’s storefront text with your actual target language. So the “French” slot can end up showing Latin.
The catches:
It only works for a secondary language. You cannot do this to your main store language. That content is locked and no app can overwrite it.
The URL keeps the carrier language’s code, so you might see /fr in the address bar while the page is Latin.
The name in the language switcher stays the carrier language unless your theme lets you rename it.
Checkout and some Shopify system text stay in the carrier language, since you can’t edit those.
It can work for the storefront if you can live with those, but it is a hack, not real support.
Honestly the thing worth doing is sending a feature request straight to Shopify support with the exact locales you need (Marathi, Punjabi, Urdu, and so on) plus one line on the business impact, like how much of your catalog is in those languages. A vague “add more languages” tends to go nowhere. Something concrete like “I sell in Urdu and Marathi and can’t publish either” is harder to ignore.
Sidekick’s info is out of date here.
Already on the list
- Urdu, Marathi, Punjabi, Irish (Irish Gaelic) and Scottish Gaelic, Sanskrit.
- I just added Urdu on a test store to confirm.
add one
- Settings > Languages > Add language
- Pick the language
- open the … menu and Publish
Once published it shows on your storefront with a language switcher.
missing: Latin - two options.
- Product titles, descriptions, pages and blogs are free text, so you can type Latin (or anything) into them under your normal store language.
- If you want it as a real storefront language with its own switcher, use the carrier trick: publish a language you will never sell in (Interlingua is a good fit for Latin), then use Translate and Adapt to overwrite all of its text with Latin. Cons: the URL keeps the carrier’s code (/ia), the switcher label stays the carrier name unless your theme lets you rename it, and checkout plus some Shopify system text stay in the carrier language.
Not to that area - I sell products to learn Marathi and Punjabi (like people here who want to teach their language to their children.
I do not want a translation into those languages. When I am filling out the category metafields - I want more languages to show up as supported languages.