diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index 1b44d85..4edaaab 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ require (
 	github.com/jmoiron/sqlx v1.3.5
 	github.com/lib/pq v1.10.9
 	github.com/nyaruka/librato v1.0.0
+	github.com/nyaruka/null/v2 v2.0.3
 	github.com/nyaruka/phonenumbers v1.1.8
 	github.com/pkg/errors v0.9.1
 	github.com/shopspring/decimal v1.3.1
diff --git a/go.sum b/go.sum
index 2659528..1024d8c 100644
--- a/go.sum
+++ b/go.sum
@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@ github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3 v1.14.6 h1:dNPt6NO46WmLVt2DLNpwczCmdV5boIZ6g/tlDrlRU
 github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3 v1.14.6/go.mod h1:NyWgC/yNuGj7Q9rpYnZvas74GogHl5/Z4A/KQRfk6bU=
 github.com/nyaruka/librato v1.0.0 h1:Vznj9WCeC1yZXbBYyYp40KnbmXLbEkjKmHesV/v2SR0=
 github.com/nyaruka/librato v1.0.0/go.mod h1:pkRNLFhFurOz0QqBz6/DuTFhHHxAubWxs4Jx+J7yUgg=
+github.com/nyaruka/null/v2 v2.0.3 h1:rdmMRQyVzrOF3Jff/gpU/7BDR9mQX0lcLl4yImsA3kw=
+github.com/nyaruka/null/v2 v2.0.3/go.mod h1:OCVeCkCXwrg5/qE6RU0c1oUVZBy+ZDrT+xYg1XSaIWA=
 github.com/nyaruka/phonenumbers v1.1.8 h1:mjFu85FeoH2Wy18aOMUvxqi1GgAqiQSJsa/cCC5yu2s=
 github.com/nyaruka/phonenumbers v1.1.8/go.mod h1:DC7jZd321FqUe+qWSNcHi10tyIyGNXGcNbfkPvdp1Vs=
 github.com/pkg/errors v0.9.1 h1:FEBLx1zS214owpjy7qsBeixbURkuhQAwrK5UwLGTwt4=
diff --git a/i18n/country.go b/i18n/country.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5fef6ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/i18n/country.go
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+package i18n
+
+import (
+	"database/sql/driver"
+
+	"github.com/nyaruka/null/v2"
+	"github.com/nyaruka/phonenumbers"
+)
+
+// Country is a ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code
+type Country string
+
+// NilCountry represents our nil, or unknown country
+var NilCountry = Country("")
+
+// DeriveCountryFromTel attempts to derive a country code (e.g. RW) from a phone number
+func DeriveCountryFromTel(number string) Country {
+	parsed, err := phonenumbers.Parse(number, "")
+	if err != nil {
+		return ""
+	}
+	return Country(phonenumbers.GetRegionCodeForNumber(parsed))
+}
+
+// Place nicely with NULLs if persisting to a database or JSON
+func (c *Country) Scan(value any) error         { return null.ScanString(value, c) }
+func (c Country) Value() (driver.Value, error)  { return null.StringValue(c) }
+func (c Country) MarshalJSON() ([]byte, error)  { return null.MarshalString(c) }
+func (c *Country) UnmarshalJSON(b []byte) error { return null.UnmarshalString(b, c) }
diff --git a/i18n/country_test.go b/i18n/country_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..609dc4f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/i18n/country_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+package i18n_test
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/nyaruka/gocommon/i18n"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+)
+
+func TestDeriveCountryFromTel(t *testing.T) {
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.Country("RW"), i18n.DeriveCountryFromTel("+250788383383"))
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.Country("EC"), i18n.DeriveCountryFromTel("+593979000000"))
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.NilCountry, i18n.DeriveCountryFromTel("1234"))
+
+	v, err := i18n.Country("RW").Value()
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	assert.Equal(t, "RW", v)
+
+	v, err = i18n.NilCountry.Value()
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	assert.Nil(t, v)
+
+	var c i18n.Country
+	assert.NoError(t, c.Scan("RW"))
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.Country("RW"), c)
+
+	assert.NoError(t, c.Scan(nil))
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.NilCountry, c)
+}
diff --git a/i18n/language._test.go b/i18n/language._test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..190a8c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/i18n/language._test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+package i18n_test
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/nyaruka/gocommon/i18n"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+)
+
+func TestLanguage(t *testing.T) {
+	lang, err := i18n.ParseLanguage("ENG")
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.Language("eng"), lang)
+
+	_, err = i18n.ParseLanguage("base")
+	assert.EqualError(t, err, "iso-639-3 codes must be 3 characters, got: base")
+
+	_, err = i18n.ParseLanguage("xzx")
+	assert.EqualError(t, err, "unrecognized language code: xzx")
+
+	v, err := i18n.Language("eng").Value()
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	assert.Equal(t, "eng", v)
+
+	v, err = i18n.NilLanguage.Value()
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	assert.Nil(t, v)
+
+	var l i18n.Language
+	assert.NoError(t, l.Scan("eng"))
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.Language("eng"), l)
+
+	assert.NoError(t, l.Scan(nil))
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.NilLanguage, l)
+}
diff --git a/i18n/language.go b/i18n/language.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2572296
--- /dev/null
+++ b/i18n/language.go
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+package i18n
+
+import (
+	"database/sql/driver"
+
+	"github.com/nyaruka/null/v2"
+	"github.com/pkg/errors"
+	"golang.org/x/text/language"
+)
+
+// Language is holds a an ISO-639-3 language code.
+type Language string
+
+// ISO639_1 returns the ISO-639-1 2-letter code for this language if it has one
+func (l Language) ISO639_1() string {
+	base, err := language.ParseBase(string(l))
+	if err != nil {
+		return ""
+	}
+	code := base.String()
+
+	// not all languages have a 2-letter code
+	if len(code) != 2 {
+		return ""
+	}
+	return code
+}
+
+// NilLanguage represents our nil, or unknown language
+var NilLanguage = Language("")
+
+// ParseLanguage returns a new Language for the passed in language string, or an error if not found
+func ParseLanguage(lang string) (Language, error) {
+	if len(lang) != 3 {
+		return NilLanguage, errors.Errorf("iso-639-3 codes must be 3 characters, got: %s", lang)
+	}
+
+	base, err := language.ParseBase(lang)
+	if err != nil {
+		return NilLanguage, errors.Errorf("unrecognized language code: %s", lang)
+	}
+
+	return Language(base.ISO3()), nil
+}
+
+// Place nicely with NULLs if persisting to a database or JSON
+func (l *Language) Scan(value any) error         { return null.ScanString(value, l) }
+func (l Language) Value() (driver.Value, error)  { return null.StringValue(l) }
+func (l Language) MarshalJSON() ([]byte, error)  { return null.MarshalString(l) }
+func (l *Language) UnmarshalJSON(b []byte) error { return null.UnmarshalString(b, l) }
diff --git a/i18n/locale.go b/i18n/locale.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b40c85f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/i18n/locale.go
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+package i18n
+
+import (
+	"database/sql/driver"
+	"fmt"
+	"strings"
+
+	"github.com/nyaruka/null/v2"
+	"golang.org/x/text/language"
+)
+
+// Locale is the combination of a language and optional country, e.g. US English, Brazilian Portuguese, encoded as the
+// language code followed by the country code, e.g. eng-US, por-BR. Every locale is valid BCP47 language tag, tho not
+// every BCP47 language tag is a valid goflow locale because we only use ISO-639-3 3 letter codes to represent language.
+type Locale string
+
+// NewLocale creates a new locale
+func NewLocale(l Language, c Country) Locale {
+	if l == NilLanguage {
+		return NilLocale
+	}
+	if c == NilCountry {
+		return Locale(l) // e.g. "eng", "por"
+	}
+	return Locale(fmt.Sprintf("%s-%s", l, c)) // e.g. "eng-US", "por-BR"
+}
+
+func (l Locale) Split() (Language, Country) {
+	if l == NilLocale || len(l) < 3 {
+		return NilLanguage, NilCountry
+	}
+
+	parts := strings.SplitN(string(l), "-", 2)
+	lang := Language(parts[0])
+	country := NilCountry
+	if len(parts) > 1 {
+		country = Country(parts[1])
+	}
+
+	return lang, country
+}
+
+func (l Locale) tag() language.Tag {
+	return language.MustParse(string(l))
+}
+
+var NilLocale = Locale("")
+
+// Place nicely with NULLs if persisting to a database or JSON
+func (l *Locale) Scan(value any) error         { return null.ScanString(value, l) }
+func (l Locale) Value() (driver.Value, error)  { return null.StringValue(l) }
+func (l Locale) MarshalJSON() ([]byte, error)  { return null.MarshalString(l) }
+func (l *Locale) UnmarshalJSON(b []byte) error { return null.UnmarshalString(b, l) }
+
+// BCP47Matcher helps find best matching locale from a set of available locales
+type BCP47Matcher struct {
+	codes   []string
+	matcher language.Matcher
+}
+
+// NewBCP47Matcher creates a new BCP47 matcher from the set of available locales which must be valid BCP47 tags.
+func NewBCP47Matcher(codes ...string) *BCP47Matcher {
+	tags := make([]language.Tag, len(codes))
+	for i := range codes {
+		tags[i] = language.MustParse(codes[i])
+	}
+	return &BCP47Matcher{codes: codes, matcher: language.NewMatcher(tags)}
+}
+
+func (m *BCP47Matcher) ForLocales(preferred ...Locale) string {
+	prefTags := make([]language.Tag, len(preferred))
+	for i := range preferred {
+		prefTags[i] = preferred[i].tag()
+	}
+
+	// see https://github.com/golang/go/issues/24211
+	_, idx, _ := m.matcher.Match(prefTags...)
+	return m.codes[idx]
+}
diff --git a/i18n/locale_test.go b/i18n/locale_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8b02fde
--- /dev/null
+++ b/i18n/locale_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+package i18n_test
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/nyaruka/gocommon/i18n"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+)
+
+func TestLocale(t *testing.T) {
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.Locale(""), i18n.NewLocale("", ""))
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.Locale(""), i18n.NewLocale("", "US"))     // invalid without language
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.Locale("eng"), i18n.NewLocale("eng", "")) // valid without country
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.Locale("eng-US"), i18n.NewLocale("eng", "US"))
+
+	l, c := i18n.Locale("eng-US").Split()
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.Language("eng"), l)
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.Country("US"), c)
+
+	l, c = i18n.NilLocale.Split()
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.NilLanguage, l)
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.NilCountry, c)
+
+	v, err := i18n.NewLocale("eng", "US").Value()
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	assert.Equal(t, "eng-US", v)
+
+	v, err = i18n.NilLanguage.Value()
+	assert.NoError(t, err)
+	assert.Nil(t, v)
+
+	var lc i18n.Locale
+	assert.NoError(t, lc.Scan("eng-US"))
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.Locale("eng-US"), lc)
+
+	assert.NoError(t, lc.Scan(nil))
+	assert.Equal(t, i18n.NilLocale, lc)
+}
+
+func TesBCP47Matcher(t *testing.T) {
+	tests := []struct {
+		preferred []i18n.Locale
+		available []string
+		best      string
+	}{
+		{preferred: []i18n.Locale{"eng-US"}, available: []string{"es_EC", "en-US"}, best: "en-US"},
+		{preferred: []i18n.Locale{"eng-US"}, available: []string{"es", "en"}, best: "en"},
+		{preferred: []i18n.Locale{"eng"}, available: []string{"es-US", "en-UK"}, best: "en-UK"},
+		{preferred: []i18n.Locale{"eng", "fra"}, available: []string{"fr-CA", "en-RW"}, best: "en-RW"},
+		{preferred: []i18n.Locale{"eng", "fra"}, available: []string{"fra-CA", "eng-RW"}, best: "eng-RW"},
+		{preferred: []i18n.Locale{"fra", "eng"}, available: []string{"fra-CA", "eng-RW"}, best: "fra-CA"},
+		{preferred: []i18n.Locale{"spa"}, available: []string{"es-EC", "es-MX", "es-ES"}, best: "es-ES"},
+		{preferred: []i18n.Locale{}, available: []string{"es_EC", "en-US"}, best: "es_EC"},
+	}
+
+	for _, tc := range tests {
+		m := i18n.NewBCP47Matcher(tc.available...)
+		best := m.ForLocales(tc.preferred...)
+
+		assert.Equal(t, tc.best, best, "locale mismatch for preferred=%v available=%s", tc.preferred, tc.available)
+	}
+}