Greetings LangCom,
Perhaps this is something worthy of a more clear and official response. User is asking about the possibility of an Old Norse Wikipedia, GerardM responds advising that extinct languages are generally not eligible for Wikipedia language editions, but however Old English Wikipedia does exist (AngWiki at https://ang.wikipedia.org). I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation and it may be worth spelling out said explanations to explain what looks like an inconsistency in policy.
Apologies is this is already covered somewhere on a Meta policy page, if so then it would be a net benefit to provide a link to the page explaining why some extinct languages are okay and others are not.
Cheers all,
Ben Landry
Salvidrim<https://www.salvidrim.net/>
⁂ English Wikipedia: 9+ years of editing experience · Former Administrator–SPI–UTRS–OTRS (2013 to 2018)
⁂ Work: Telecom coordinator for Luminet<https://luminet.ca/> / Dimension<http://www.dimension10.ca/>10<http://www.dimension10.ca/> · Freelance administrative assistant on my own time
⁂ Personal: ☎ 514-691-6738 ✉ sal<mailto:salvidrim@salvidrim.net>vidrim(a)salvidrim.net<mailto:salvidrim@salvidrim.net> ⇄ https://www.linkedin.com/in/salvidrim/
________________________________
From: Kräfta <drakegemini664(a)gmail.com>
Sent: July 15, 2021 4:07 AM
To: Ben Salvidrim <salvidrim(a)salvidrim.net>
Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] Re: Norse?
Thanks! Although, there is an Old English edition of Wikipedia
On Wed, 14 Jul 2021, 7:21 pm Ben Salvidrim, <salvidrim(a)salvidrim.net<mailto:salvidrim@salvidrim.net>> wrote:
Your request was for a "Old Norse wikipedia page"; Wikipedia does in fact have an article about the Old Norse language in several editions, including English Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Norse
If you were in fact asking about having an edition of Wikipedia written in the Old Norse language, then Gerard's response explains that we don't generally create new Wikipedia editions in extinct languages.
Ben Landry
Salvidrim<https://www.salvidrim.net/>
⁂ English Wikipedia: 9+ years of editing experience · Former Administrator–SPI–UTRS–OTRS (2013 to 2018)
⁂ Work: Telecom coordinator for Luminet<https://luminet.ca/> / Dimension<http://www.dimension10.ca/>10<http://www.dimension10.ca/> · Freelance administrative assistant on my own time
⁂ Personal: ☎ 514-691-6738 ✉ sal<mailto:salvidrim@salvidrim.net>vidrim(a)salvidrim.net<mailto:salvidrim@salvidrim.net> ⇄ https://www.linkedin.com/in/salvidrim/
________________________________
From: Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com<mailto:gerard.meijssen@gmail.com>>
Sent: July 14, 2021 10:41 AM
To: Wikipedia mailing list <wikipedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org<mailto:wikipedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org>>
Subject: [Wikipedia-l] Re: Norse?
Hoi,
The existing policy of the Language Committee does not allow for extinct
languages. Sorry but no.
Thanks,
GerardM
On Wed, 14 Jul 2021 at 16:07, Kräfta <drakegemini664(a)gmail.com<mailto:drakegemini664@gmail.com>> wrote:
> I am wondering about the creation of an Old Norse wikipedia page?
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I agree with Kimberli on all points. Hijacker proposals and extinct languages not behaving like Latin should be rejected.
Also, if a language is not capable of creating a wp, it follows that we should block wikinews as well.
At the outset, one would think a se.wiktionary.org had a future, since e.g. fr.wiktionary.org has an astonishing se-fr part. Also, if the idea of a monolingual se dictionary would gain ground, se.wiktionary would be a good framework for it. But for now: probably not.
Then to Gerard Meijssens comment " I take it that you mean that they are not eligible. For me that means that we will not approve at a later date.":
Here I disagree. For Northern Luri, I see no reason why a "no" for a wp project today would imply a "no" at a later stage. The language has 4 million speakers, if the world were a place with an equal language policy for all, we would expect it to have a wp version with 500000 articles. This is of course not the case, but at least we should not reject the possibility that some of these 4m speakers would knock on wp's door in the future.
(or perhaps I misread you, and we agree after all). In any case, housekeeping is a useful activity.
Trond
Lähettäjä: langcom-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org <langcom-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Päivämäärä: torstaina, 1. heinäkuuta 2021 klo 15.01
Vastaanottaja: langcom(a)lists.wikimedia.org langcom(a)lists.wikimedia.orge<mailto:langcom@lists.wikimedia.orge>
Aihe: Langcom Digest, Vol 92, Issue 8
1. Some housekeeping (Kimberli Mäkäräinen)
2. Re: Some housekeeping (Gerard Meijssen)
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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2021 02:31:57 +0000
From: Kimberli Mäkäräinen <kimberli.makarainen(a)tuni.fi>
Subject: [Langcom] Some housekeeping
To: Wikimedia Foundation Language Committee
<langcom(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
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.eurprd08.prod.outlook.com>
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Hei! Sorry for the long mail.
Since the Northern Luri wp was closed, I think it would make sense to reject the remaining Northern Luri proposal on meta: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikinews_Norther…. Also the "Sumerian" incubator (Wp/sux) is back and should be nuked again and this request rejected<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_Shumer…>.
This Wiktionary has no proposal<https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wt/yux>, but it was created by a notorious "Wiki hijacker" (to use a term from last week's Arctic Knot conference) who did not know the languages he was supposedly saving so I say nuke it. The wp version of this has already been nuked.
Other proposals that would be sensible to reject:
1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_Ter_Sa…
2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_Tundra…
This proposal for Norn was rejected since it's extinct and has very few written sources<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_Norn>, which makes me wonder if this is written in actual Norn or some version of Nynorn or some other language: https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wp/nrn
I think that the Northern Saami wiktionary project should probably also be nuked and buried as a lot of it was created by someone with no grasp of the language (cf. "Wiki hijacker"), but I'll ask around in the community if there is any reason they think it should be saved.
mvh.
-K