diff --git a/SConscript b/SConscript
index 18abb9d39..4409c18d3 100644
--- a/SConscript
+++ b/SConscript
@@ -555,7 +555,7 @@ if GetOption('ignore-updates'):
 
 
 #Generate list of sources to compile
-sources = Glob("src/*.cpp") + Glob("src/*/*.cpp") + Glob("src/*/*/*.cpp") + Glob("data/*.cpp")
+sources = Glob("src/*.cpp") + Glob("src/*/*.cpp") + Glob("src/*/*/*.cpp") + Glob("data/*.cpp") + Glob("data/localization/*.cpp")
 if not GetOption('nolua') and not GetOption('renderer') and not GetOption('font'):
 	sources += Glob("src/lua/socket/*.c") + Glob("src/lua/LuaCompat.c")
 
diff --git a/data/localization/EN.cpp b/data/localization/EN.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6090a6fa0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/localization/EN.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#include "common/Localization.h"
+#include "common/Internationalization.h"
+
+Locale LocaleEN {
+	[]{ return String("English"); },
+	[]
+	{
+		using i18n::translation;
+	}
+};
diff --git a/data/localization/List.h b/data/localization/List.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..03358f3b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/localization/List.h
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#pragma once
+
+#include "common/Localization.h"
+
+extern Locale LocaleEN;
+
+const std::vector<Locale *> locales =
+{
+	&LocaleEN,
+};
diff --git a/src/PowderToySDL.cpp b/src/PowderToySDL.cpp
index 9807e4aa2..4e7926bb2 100644
--- a/src/PowderToySDL.cpp
+++ b/src/PowderToySDL.cpp
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
 #include <sys/stat.h>
 #endif
 
+#include "localization/List.h"
 #include "Format.h"
 #include "Misc.h"
 
@@ -672,6 +673,11 @@ int main(int argc, char * argv[])
 	else
 		ChdirToDataDirectory();
 
+	String localeName = Client::Ref().GetPrefString("Locale", "");
+	for(Locale *locale : locales)
+		if(locale->GetName() == localeName)
+			locale->Set();
+
 	scale = Client::Ref().GetPrefInteger("Scale", 1);
 	resizable = Client::Ref().GetPrefBool("Resizable", false);
 	fullscreen = Client::Ref().GetPrefBool("Fullscreen", false);
diff --git a/src/common/Internationalization.cpp b/src/common/Internationalization.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ed7860174
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/common/Internationalization.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#include "Internationalization.h"
+
+namespace i18n
+{
+	// These are not global variables so that it is possible to use them during
+	// dynamic initialization of other global variables
+	static std::map<LiteralPtr, CanonicalPtr> &literalCanonicalization()
+	{
+		static std::map<LiteralPtr, CanonicalPtr> literalCanonicalization{};
+		return literalCanonicalization;
+	}
+
+	static std::map<ByteString, CanonicalPtr> &canonicalization()
+	{
+		static std::map<ByteString, CanonicalPtr> canonicalization{};
+		return canonicalization;
+	}
+
+	CanonicalPtr Canonicalize(LiteralPtr str)
+	{
+		auto it = literalCanonicalization().find(str);
+		if(it == literalCanonicalization().end())
+		{
+			CanonicalPtr can = canonicalization().insert(std::make_pair(str, str)).first->second;
+			literalCanonicalization().insert(std::make_pair(str, can));
+			return can;
+		}
+		else
+			return it->second;
+	}
+}
diff --git a/src/common/Internationalization.h b/src/common/Internationalization.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..77e364f7b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/common/Internationalization.h
@@ -0,0 +1,133 @@
+#pragma once
+
+#include <array>
+#include <map>
+
+#include "String.h"
+
+/*
+	We handle internationalization by maintaining a map from "key" strings, to
+	localized versions of those strings. The "keys" are strings in English, the
+	default language. At application startup this map is populated by
+	translations based on current settings. In theory this map could be updated
+	on the fly at runtime but various GUI interfaces will "cache" translations
+	of the strings that they use and working around this is tricky, thus we
+	require an application restart to change the language.
+
+	For performance reasons we rely on the assumption that we only need to
+	translate strings that are actual compile-time string literal constants.
+	Such literals are very easily equated by their pointer value: a pointer to a
+	string literal will always point to that literal and nothing else. The
+	LiteralPtr type is a pointer with this assumption.
+
+	However two instances of the same string literal might not have the same
+	pointer (in particular if the literal appears in different compilation
+	units; albeit depends on the compiler and compiler options). We thus
+	introduce another layer of indirection: a map from string literal pointers
+	to a "canonical" pointer for that string literal. Really it's just an
+	arbitrarily chosen literal pointer for that string. Invariant: given
+	CanonicalPtr c, LiteralPtr l, if !strcmp(l, c) then Canonicalize(l) == c.
+
+	Sometimes several pieces of strings are assembled into a larger string,
+	possibly with data inbetween, e.g.:
+		String::Build("Page ", page, " of ", total)
+	In the C world we could've gotten away with using a key with placeholders 
+	such as "Page %d of %d" and then the translation would include the format
+	specifiers as well and it would all work out. Note that it is a bad idea to
+	introduce "Page" and "of" as separate keys as they don't make much sense on
+	their own. Our solution is to allow keys to be a *sequence* of English
+	strings that are intended to be used together, and the translation is a
+	sequence of the same length. In the above example our key would be
+	{"Page ", " of "}. We will then obtain a translation which would be a pair
+	of strings that could be fed into String::Build.
+
+	Sometimes the same English string is used in multiple places in different
+	contexts, and in a different language the different uses might require
+	different translations, e.g. "Login" could be a verb, or a noun. To remedy
+	this we can add a string to the key that would indicate the context, even
+	though the context part is never shown to the user, e.g.
+	{"Login", "Authenticate"} vs {"Login", "Username"}.
+
+	This interface boils down to a user-defined string literal operator""_i18n
+	that lets you write "Foo"_i18n which would look up translation for the key
+	"Foo" at runtime; and the function i18nMulti(...) which takes multiple keys
+	and returns an array of the same size with the translation of the entire
+	sequence.
+*/
+
+namespace i18n
+{
+	using LiteralPtr = char const *;
+	using CanonicalPtr = char const *;
+
+	CanonicalPtr Canonicalize(LiteralPtr str);
+
+	template<size_t n> struct TranslationMap
+	{
+		// This is not just a static field so that it is possible to use it
+		// during dynamic initialization of global variables
+		static std::map<std::array<CanonicalPtr, n>, std::array<String, n>> &Map()
+		{
+			static std::map<std::array<CanonicalPtr, n>, std::array<String, n>> map{};
+			return map;
+		}
+	};
+
+	template<size_t N> String &translation(char const (&str)[N])
+	{
+		return TranslationMap<1>::Map()[{Canonicalize(str)}][0];
+	}
+	
+	template<size_t n> inline std::array<String, n> &multiTranslation(std::array<CanonicalPtr, n> &cans, size_t)
+	{
+		return TranslationMap<n>::Map()[cans];
+	}
+
+	template<size_t n, size_t N, typename... Ts> std::array<String, n> &multiTranslation(std::array<CanonicalPtr, n> &cans, size_t i, char const (&lit)[N], Ts&&... args)
+	{
+		cans[i] = Canonicalize(lit);
+		return multiTranslation(cans, i + 1, std::forward<Ts>(args)...);
+	}
+
+	template<typename... Ts> std::array<String, sizeof...(Ts)> &translation(Ts&&... args)
+	{
+		std::array<CanonicalPtr, sizeof...(Ts)> strs;
+		return multiTranslation(strs, 0, std::forward<Ts>(args)...);
+	}
+
+	template<size_t n> inline std::array<String, n> getTranslation(std::array<LiteralPtr, n> strs)
+	{
+		std::array<CanonicalPtr, n> cans;
+		for(size_t i = 0; i < n; i++)
+			cans[i] = Canonicalize(strs[i]);
+		auto it = TranslationMap<n>::Map().find(cans);
+		if(it != TranslationMap<n>::Map().end())
+			return it->second;
+		std::array<String, n> defs;
+		for(size_t i = 0; i < n; i++)
+			defs[i] = ByteString(strs[i]).FromAscii();
+		return defs;
+	}
+
+	template<size_t n> inline std::array<String, n> getMultiTranslation(std::array<LiteralPtr, n> &strs, size_t)
+	{
+		return getTranslation<n>(strs);
+	}
+
+	template<size_t n, size_t N, typename... Ts> std::array<String, n> getMultiTranslation(std::array<LiteralPtr, n> &strs, size_t i, char const (&lit)[N], Ts&&... args)
+	{
+		strs[i] = lit;
+		return getMultiTranslation(strs, i + 1, std::forward<Ts>(args)...);
+	}
+}
+
+inline String operator""_i18n(char const *str, size_t)
+{
+	return i18n::getTranslation<1>({str})[0];
+}
+
+template<typename... Ts> std::array<String, sizeof...(Ts)> i18nMulti(Ts&&... args)
+{
+	std::array<i18n::LiteralPtr, sizeof...(Ts)> strs;
+	return i18n::getMultiTranslation(strs, 0, std::forward<Ts>(args)...);
+}
diff --git a/src/common/Localization.h b/src/common/Localization.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6b1e0bf0c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/common/Localization.h
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#pragma once
+
+#include <functional>
+
+#include "String.h"
+
+class Locale
+{
+public:
+	// The name of the language this locale is for, readable in both the native
+	// language and in English;
+	std::function<String()> GetName;
+
+	// Populate the translations map.
+	std::function<void()> Set;
+};
diff --git a/src/common/String.h b/src/common/String.h
index d0eee7507..d39287fee 100644
--- a/src/common/String.h
+++ b/src/common/String.h
@@ -683,3 +683,4 @@ template<typename... Ts> String String::Build(Ts&&... args)
 }
 
 #include "common/Format.h"
+#include "common/Internationalization.h"