tala-locale 0.2.0

Phone number and timezone → country, currency, and language inference. Extended locale data (symbols, formatting, VAT, RTL) for 55 countries. Zero dependencies.

tala-locale

Phone number → country, currency, and language. One call. Zero dependencies.

from tala_locale import infer_locale

infer_locale("[phone]")   # LocaleResult(country='NG', currency='NGN', language='en')
infer_locale("[phone]")     # LocaleResult(country='US', currency='USD', language='en')
infer_locale("[phone]")     # LocaleResult(country='FR', currency='EUR', language='fr')
infer_locale("[phone]")    # LocaleResult(country='JP', currency='JPY', language='ja')

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Why tala-locale?

Any application that collects a phone number can instantly know where a user is from — no GPS, no IP lookup, no user forms.

What you want	What you get
Pre-fill currency for pricing	result.currency → "GBP", "NGN", "AED"
Show onboarding in the user's language	result.language → "en", "fr", "ar", "sw"
Route to the right regional support team	result.country → "KE", "ZA", "IN"
Skip asking "where are you from?"	Infer it silently at signup
Validate that a number is internationally recognisable	is_supported(phone)

Works with any messaging platform or application that handles phone numbers: WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS, iMessage, SaaS onboarding flows, e-commerce checkout, fintech KYC, fraud detection, analytics pipelines, CRM enrichment.

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Installation

pip install tala-locale

Pure Python. No dependencies. Works on Python 3.10+.

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Quick start

from tala_locale import infer_locale, is_supported

# Basic usage
result = infer_locale("[phone]")
print(result.country)   # "GB"
print(result.currency)  # "GBP"
print(result.language)  # "en"

# Unpack like a plain tuple
country, currency, language = infer_locale("[phone]")
# country="KE", currency="KES", language="en"

# Check before using
result = infer_locale(user_phone)
if result.is_known():
    set_user_currency(result.currency)
else:
    ask_user_for_currency()

# Quick boolean check
if is_supported(phone):
    ...

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Phone format tolerance

tala-locale accepts phone numbers in any common format — it strips everything that isn't a digit before matching:

infer_locale("[phone]")        # spaces
infer_locale("[phone]")        # dashes
infer_locale("(234) 801 234 5678")       # parentheses
infer_locale("2348012345678")            # bare digits, no +
infer_locale("[phone]")           # E.164 standard
infer_locale("whatsapp:[phone]")  # WhatsApp format
infer_locale("whatsapp:[phone]")   # WhatsApp without +

All of the above return LocaleResult(country='NG', currency='NGN', language='en').

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Handling unknown numbers

When the prefix is not recognised, all three fields are None. Never assume a default — ask the user explicitly instead:

result = infer_locale(phone)

if result.is_known():
    # Safe to use result.country, result.currency, result.language
    create_account(country=result.country, currency=result.currency)
else:
    # Ask the user — don't guess
    prompt_user_for_country_and_currency()

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API reference

infer_locale(phone_number: str) -> LocaleResult

Main function. Returns a LocaleResult named tuple.

class LocaleResult(NamedTuple)

Field	Type	Description
country	str | None	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 (e.g. "NG", "US", "DE")
currency	str | None	ISO 4217 (e.g. "NGN", "USD", "EUR")
language	str | None	ISO 639-1 (e.g. "en", "fr", "ar")
.is_known()	bool	True if prefix was recognised

Shortcut functions

infer_country(phone)   # → str | None  (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2)
infer_currency(phone)  # → str | None  (ISO 4217)
infer_language(phone)  # → str | None  (ISO 639-1)
is_supported(phone)    # → bool

supported_countries() -> list[dict]

Returns all supported entries. Useful for building dropdowns or documentation:

from tala_locale import supported_countries

for entry in supported_countries():
    print(entry["prefix"], entry["country"], entry["currency"], entry["language"])
# 1   US USD en
# 7   RU RUB ru
# 20  EG EGP ar
# ...

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Coverage

215+ country/territory entries across all regions:

Region	Countries
West Africa	Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, and 11 more
East Africa	Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and 5 more
North Africa	Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan
Southern Africa	South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and 5 more
Central Africa	DRC, Cameroon, Angola, Gabon, and 5 more
Indian Ocean	Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Comoros
Western Europe	UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, and 10 more
Eastern Europe	Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, and 15 more
North America	USA, Canada (via +1), Mexico
Caribbean	Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, Dominican Republic, and 8 more
Central America	Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, and 4 more
South America	Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, and 7 more
Middle East	UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, Iran, and 10 more
South Asia	India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal
East Asia	China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan
Southeast Asia	Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, and 4 more
Central Asia	Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, and 4 more
Oceania	Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and 10 more

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How prefix matching works

tala-locale uses longest-prefix-match to handle overlapping calling codes:

infer_locale("18681234567")   # +1868 → Trinidad (TT), NOT USA (+1)
infer_locale("18761234567")   # +1876 → Jamaica (JM), NOT USA (+1)
infer_locale("85291234567")   # +852  → Hong Kong (HK)
infer_locale("8801712345678") # +880  → Bangladesh (BD)

The longest matching prefix always wins. Prefixes are sorted at import time, so every call is O(n) on the prefix list — effectively constant for the fixed dataset size.

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Contributing

git clone https://github.com/rvethllc/tala-locale
cd tala-locale
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

• Missing a country or territory? Open a PR — add an entry to src/tala_locale/_data.py with a test.
• Found an incorrect currency or language code? Same thing — one line change + test.

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Versioning

Follows Semantic Versioning. Breaking changes to the public API bump the major version.

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License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.

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Built by RVETH — makers of TALA, the AI operating system for global enterprise.