As of today, Facebook is available in 23 languages (26 if you count derivative versions of each). There are also 7 languages that are in beta, including the recently seen pirate version. The new languages include a number of Asian languages, primarily seen in southeastern Asia, an area currently dominated by Friendster. As Facebook expands its global reach, it is important that the site be available in all languages.

It appears that many of the languages have been translated in relatively the order of popularity. There are still plenty of languages remaining with 63 other languages being actively translated. One interesting language that’s being added is “Leet Speak” which is the language of uber computer geeks. One commenter on the “Leet Speak” translations section wrote:

I’m sure one of the primary points of debate regarding the translations is how far to vulgarize a word when translating into leet. For example, the word “Leet” could be made into anywhere from l33t to 1337 to 1_ [- [- +. Perhaps this language should be subdivided into different levels of, ahem, legibility?

While another one wrote:

533, i pr3f3r 7h3 v3r510n wi7h n0 5ym8015. 0n1y 13773r5 4nd num83r5

It’s great to see that Facebook is at least leveraging their tools for entertainment purposes and not just utility. Then again, has Facebook ever been simply for utility?