Nkansah, to build up a small wikipedia I would not go to translate from English version. Many articles in big wikipedias like English, German have grown to an extent that only part of readers will read all. If you go to translate these very long and often complicated articles you have a higher risk that your language will be less AKAN than English put in Akan words. Different languages have different structures of thought and expression. I sometimes sit long time trying to find a Swahili noun for an English one till I remember that in Swahili we use far less nouns but say it differently with a verbal expression.
Short entries with basic information are just fine. And less tiring for you who tries to build a base.
I often take the simple:Wikipedia entry as a basis (if it makes sense...), open some other language versions I can read and see how they start the explanation and then put it into Swahili. So less translating but let yourself be inspired by the choice and structure of information about topics. And then boil it down to what you think readers in your environment and culture should know first.
Referencing I often (mostly) do by copying the ref-sections from English because for East African readers who are looking for referecing English is the language of choice if there is no Swahili literature (as it is most of the time).
What Akan standard to use? No idea! (just a quote by Martin Luther: Pecca fortiter! -dare to sin-)
Cheers Kipala - Ingo
Message: 4 Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 21:59:23 +0000 From: Nkansah Rexford nkansahrexford@gmail.com
In the case of the Akan language, there're many speakers. And many schools teach the language, how to write and speak from primary schools to even sometimes senior high school.
I, myself, can go back to writing articles onto the Akan Wikipedia. What I ask myself sometimes is that, "Will I have to translate the english versions for whatever article I wanna write to Akan? How will I provide referencing for the articles I write in Akan? What is the standardized Akan language to use?"
I have lots of interest in improving the Akan Wikipedia, and I'm gonna fix it in my workflow and help improve it.
Because, Why not?
Thanks for suggestions.