Abstract: The paper introduces the Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines, a formal specification and accompanying documentation defining a vocabulary of XML elements, meant for the annotation of texts for scholarly purposes. TEI is widely used for the encoding of e.g. complex texts in digital libraries, for a wide variety of text types. The paper describes the history and organisation of the Text Encoding Initiative, the structure of the Guidelines and gives several use cases. It then moves on to the question of internationalisation: while TEI elements can describe text in any language, the Guidelines themselves are nevertheless in English. However, TEI offers several possibilities of how to translate (parts of) the Guidelines. We discuss them, and offer a new, resource light alternative.