ADR 0027 Language Icons

ADR-0027: Each language's icon is the first letter of its own name

Source of truth: this wiki page.

• Status: Accepted
• Date: 2026-10-04

Context

A language's chip, on the Decks tab and in Progress, showed the first letter of the language's first card. Most courses open with a greeting, so the chips read न, ন, న, ನ side by side. The owner: "fix the icons for each language, you are using the same 'na' a lot". Asked what an icon should show, they chose "the first letter of its own name".

Decision

A language block may name its icon: the first letter of the language's own name. The decks give हि for Hindi, म for Marathi, বা for Bengali, অ for Assamese, తె for Telugu, ಕ for Kannada, ગુ for Gujarati, and Es for Spanish (Español), where one Latin letter would say little. Every deck file of a language names it. A chip shows the icon, or, for a language that names none, the first letter of its first card, as before.

Consequences

• icon sits in every deck file's language block, as the other language fields do. A new language must name its icon, or its chip falls back to its first card.
• Assamese অ is also Bengali's first vowel letter, but the two chips differ: Bengali shows বা.

Alternatives considered

• A table of icons in the app: a language is data (AGENTS.md).
• A letter only that language uses (ৰ for Assamese, ळ for Marathi): Hindi and Bengali have none.
• The two-letter code (HI, BN): Latin letters, not the language's own script.

See also: Contributing · ADR-Index · Home