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Fourth Version of Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ-LGR-4) Published

6 November 2020

LOS ANGELES – 6 November 2020 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today announced the publication of the fourth version of Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone (RZ-LGR-4). Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ-LGR) define a set of rules to determine valid Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) labels for the root zone of the Domain Name System (DNS) and their variant labels.

RZ-LGR-4 integrates 18 scripts, adding Chinese and Bangla scripts in this version, in addition to Arabic, Devanagari, Ethiopic, Georgian, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Hebrew, Kannada, Khmer, Lao, Malayalam, Oriya, Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu, and Thai. These rules were developed using the proposals submitted by the Generation Panels (GPs) formed for these scripts, which were finalized after Public Comment proceedings. The Armenian and Cyrillic script proposals have also been completed by the respective GPs but have been deferred from integration by the Integration Panel until proposals for related scripts are also finalized.

RZ-LGR development follows the Procedure to Develop and Maintain the Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone in Respect of IDNA Labels. A total of 28 scripts have been identified in the Maximal Starting Repertoire for inclusion in RZ-LGR. The remaining scripts will be included in future releases of RZ-LGR as relevant proposals become available from the community.

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ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address – a name or a number – into your computer or other device. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world.