Hi Biffin, it would be great to have Thai for MODx

The answer is no, 0.9.7 will use a different system for language strings, which is not totally operationnal yet.
I think you should translate 0.9.6, it’s not such a big work and the new branch - 0.9.7 + - will not be ready for production shortly. You’ll benefit from having translated 0.9.6 when 0.9.7’s translation system is ready because strings won’t be all different from 0.9.6.
I hope this clarifies things.
I’ll let the dev team give more insight into how translation will work with 0.9.7.
Note : I edited your title from "0.9.7 compatable" to a more explicit title - "0.9.6 translation compatible with 0.9.7 ?" so that you get more answers