At first glance, i18n does not make much sense. As a matter of fact, it is a funny abreviation of the word 'internationalization': it begins with an 'i' and ends with an 'n', with 18 letters in between.

Ideally, the documents to be translated into different languages are based on a neutral source text, containing the least possible language-, country-, and culture specific elements.

Source language texts which were not prepared according to i18n specifications should be adapted before starting the translations to make them language-neutral. It is easier to perform this task once on the source language material, than to struggle with translation problems in every single target language.