Langcom November 2019

langcom@lists.wikimedia.org

8 participants
7 discussions

Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Khorasani Turkic
by Steven White 12 Dec '19

12 Dec '19

See https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_Khoras…. In theory, this request should be eligible. And while the test project has been mostly dormant over the last seven years, it objectively has been active enough not to reject as "stale". However, the project is entirely written in Latin script, which Ethnologue does not indicate is a valid script for the language. Over a year ago, I put the request on hold, pending conversion of the contents to Perso-Arabic, but no action has been taken. So which of the three actions below does the committee think I should take here? 1. Mark "eligible", but note on the request page that the project will under no conditions merit final approval unless written in Perso-Arabic. 2. Mark "rejected", inviting the community to reapply when the test is converted to Perso-Arabic. 3. Leave as "on hold" indefinitely, awaiting conversion to Perso-Arabic. Personally, I favor #1, but mainly because I don't like keeping projects on indefinite hold, as I think that makes us look indecisive and pokey. But I could live with #3 in this particular case. Thoughts? Steven Sent from Outlook<http://aka.ms/weboutlook>

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Kotava Wikipedia
by Jon Harald Søby 22 Nov '19

22 Nov '19

Hi all, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the Kotava Wikipedia. Kotava is a conlang created in 1978, mainly known in French-speaking countries (according to the English Wikipedia). They have a very active test wiki in Incubator, with more than 3,000 articles, which makes it bigger than the Novial Wikipedia (which we approved in 2008) and about the same size as the Lingua Franca Nova (LFN) Wikipedia (which we approved in 2017). There are several active users, and sustained activity <https://tools.wmflabs.org/meta/catanalysis/index.php?cat=0&title=Wp/avk&wik…> for many months. Does anyone have reasons for why we should not approve this project? -- mvh Jon Harald Søby

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By far, the oldest unaddressed Requests for new languages remaining: Baluchi Wikipedias
by Steven White 20 Nov '19

20 Nov '19

By far, the oldest remaining unaddressed Requests for new languages on the Meta RFL page are those of Wikipedia Balochi [macrolanguage] and Wikipedia Eastern Balochi, both of which date to the summer of 2010. In addition to those two requests, there is an RFL for Southern Balochi, marked "eligible" by Gerard in 2008, and an RFL for Western Balochi, open and unaddressed since 2014. At some point, Satdeep was looking into these. But I think the first question is this: * Are these languages mutually intelligible? In particular, are they mutually intelligible in writing? Can someone at least help me get an answer to that question? I have the sense from the English Wikipedia article Balochi language<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balochi_language>—the one article covers all—that they are. But that's just a sense; it's not proof. The answer to that question will dictate the next steps to take. Steven Sent from Outlook<http://aka.ms/weboutlook>

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Eligibility of Prussian Wikipedia
by Steven White 20 Nov '19

20 Nov '19

Please see https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_Prussi…. Prussian was considered to have gone extinct in the 18th century, and for a while was listed in ISO 639-3 as "extinct". Indeed, that was the situation when the project was first proposed in 2007. However, in 2009, its listing in ISO was changed from "extinct" to "living", due to a robust effort to revive the language. Indeed, the Wikipedia article<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Prussian_language#Revived_Old_Prussian> suggests that there are now a few children who are natively bilingual. The revival effort is not based on this Wikipedia. The test project has been moderately active over the years, but certainly not at a level that would start us contemplating approval. But to me this is further evidence that the revival is real and legitimate on its own, and not the very reason for a Prussian Wikipedia project. One person commenting on the request page suggests that prg should not be the language code for the revival. Still, the fact that the ISO listing was changed to "living" suggests that at least for now, the standards authority is willing to accept that, so we should be, too. Accordingly, I recommend that this project be marked "eligible". Steven Sent from Outlook<http://aka.ms/weboutlook>

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Proposal to add Kimberli Mäkäräinen as LangCom member
by Jon Harald Søby 19 Nov '19

19 Nov '19

Amir asked Kimberli Mäkäräinen (User:Yupik) if she would be interested in serving on the language committee. Since I have worked a lot with Kimberli over the years, especially on the Sámi project that Wikimedia Norge is working on, we thought it would be a good idea if I introduce her to the list. Kimberli is originally from the US, but has lived in Finland for decades, where she studies for her PhD and works as a professional translator. She has been a Wikipedia contributor for many many years already, especially working in the Northern Sámi Wikipedia, but also in several other languages. In order to get details right I asked her to send me some, and she had this nice academic introduction ready at hand: Kimberli Mäkäräinen graduated from the University of Illinois at > Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), USA (BA in Linguistics with high distinction, > 1994), the University of Helsinki (UH), Finland (BA in English Translation, > 2015; MA in English Translation, 2016), and is a thesis short of a second > MA in Saami Studies from UH (2016–). Ms. Mäkäräinen has combined her love > of translating legislation, terminology, and the Saami languages in her > PhD, which debates the ease of understanding the terminology used in > Finnish legislation translated into Skolt Saami. Awarded High Distinction > from UIUC for her thesis, A Papyrus in Fayumic Coptic, she is an authorized > translator from Finnish into English, and received an NIAS SUPRA Nordic > Scholarship for her work on translating legislation in multilingual legal > systems involving lesser-resourced languages. Both professionally and > personally, Ms. Mäkäräinen believes everyone should be able to read the > laws affecting their everyday lives in their own language and more > resources should be allocated to allow this to happen. Accordingly, she > advocates through her work for the use of languages ranging from Tundra > Nenets to Zulu in open-knowledge projects like Wikipedia and other > Wikimedia projects, the Helsinki Term Bank for the Arts and Sciences, and > other dictionary and knowledge projects. > I believe Kimberli would make a great addition to the language committee, and hope you all agree. :-) -- mvh Jon Harald Søby

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Approval of Guianan Creole Wikipedia
by Jon Harald Søby 12 Nov '19

12 Nov '19

Hello all, I reached out to an academic who has published works about the French Guianan Creole language [1] to confirm the validity of the Guianan Creole Wikipedia [2], and they confirmed that it is indeed the correct language. They have met [3] the localisation criteria, and there are 3 regular contributors over a long period of time [4]. The number of regular contributors is a bit on the lower side, but I think it is a reasonable number for a relatively small language (around 250–300 thousand speakers according to Wikipedia. But all in all I am impressed with the activity, and would like to formally suggest the approval of the Guianese Creole Wikipedia. [1] As usual, I won't divulge their name here on the public list because I didn't discuss that with them, but would be happy to share the name on the private list. [2] https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/gcr [3] https://tools.wmflabs.org/robin/?tool=codelookup&code=gcr [4] https://tools.wmflabs.org/meta/catanalysis/index.php?cat=0&title=Wp/gcr&wik… -- mvh Jon Harald Søby

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Approval of Tacawit (Shawiya) Wiktionary
by Jon Harald Søby 12 Nov '19

12 Nov '19

Hello again, With the help of Wikimédia France and Reda Kerbouche [1], I reached some external experts to confirm the validity of the Tacawit (also called *Shawiya* in English and *chaoui* in French) Wiktionary [2], and they confirmed that the language is the correct one. They also confirmed that the Latin alphabet, which the Wiktionary is written in, is the most used for spelling this language, so it is the main one that should be used for Wikimedia projects. The localisation requirements are met [3] and there is steady activity in the Incubator [4], so I would like to formally suggest approval of this Wiktionary. One interesting fact is that this would be the first language in Wikimedia projects where a Wikipedia would *not* be the first project created for the language, so it is a milestone of sorts. [1] Reda is one of the main contributors to the Tacawit Wiktionary, but also a well-known and well-respected Wikimedian in other projects – I'm sure some of you already know him. [2] https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wt/shy [3] https://tools.wmflabs.org/robin/?tool=codelookup&code=shy-latn [4] https://tools.wmflabs.org/pathoschild-contrib/catanalysis/index.php?cat=0&t… -- mvh Jon Harald Søby

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Langcom November 2019