The $SYBASE/locales directory contains a subdirectory for each available language. Each language subdirectory contains a subdirectory for each available character set for that language.
The .loc files in these subdirectories enable SAP ASE or Backup Server to report errors in a specific language, encoded in a specific character set.
There are a variety of .loc files in each subdirectory. Most of these files contain translated error messages for a specific product or utility.
The common.loc file in the utf8 subdirectory for each language contains localized information, such as local date, time, and currency formatting, that is used by all products.
The locales.dat file contains entries that associate platform-specific locale names with SAP language and character set combinations.