Dear Sirs,

Regarding the legibility of the Luri Wikipedia, you are kindly requested to pay attention to the following issues.

First of all, this Wikipedia is written in the Paperik Luri script that is new to the Luri soceity. During the three last decades, some scripts based on Arabic alphabets prevalent in Iran have been developed in oreder to write Luri. Some of them are Lur, Zagros and Paperic. Among these scripts only Paprik has been taught to thousands of Luri youth via virtual  or real classes. Hundreds of Luri educated people are using it in the virtual space, newspapers, books etc.The number of learners and users of this script is increasing growing. Since this script is new to the Lurish people, it is natural that there are so many Lurs who have difficulty in reading it.The population of Lurs is at least 8 million. They don't possess any educational programs in their own language in the Iranian schools or big medias run by the government.  More than 80 percent of Luri families don't teach and speak Luri to their young children during the two recent decades Luri is an endangered language. It needs our support urgently. Thus, it is expected that international entities help the Luri language survive not to impede its progress.

Secondly, there are various dialects among Lurs with considerable differences. As linguists like Erik Anonby say Luri is a  linguistic continuum not a monolithic language like Persian. It is quite natural that within a linguist continnum like Kurdish and Luri there is a high level of language variation so that the speakers of some dialects or varities have difficulties understanding the others.Of course with the advent of new technologies and social networks, Lurs are beginning to learn or at least get acquainted with each other's language.

The third point that should be considered is that in all the societies that are historically deprived of education and writing in their own mother tongue, reading comprehension is a problem at the beginning of their efforts to read and write in their own language. If you give them  a piece  of writing specially prose in their own language it may be so difficult for them to read or understand it easily but when you present it to them , for instance, though sound files they under it easily because listening comprehension is very easy to them, they have practiced and used it through their lives. Basically they have learned and develpoed their knowledge and skill in their mother tongue through conversation and listening. In such situation all of us should help the speakers of such language develop the habit of reading and writing in their own language not preventing and choking their new_fledgling writing system accusing it of unreadability or illigibility. For sure, with the efforts made up to know, thousands of Luri people can easily read and understand the Luri Wikipedia very easiky and the number will increase and increase in the future. This should be our target and our evaluation population not the majority that is still uneducated in Luri writing system and reading comprehension.

The fourth point is that the Luri of dwellers in cities has been greatly influenced by Persian because of the monolingual education system and the precedence of Persian during the recent decades. Many, but not all, urban Luri speakers prefer to use many Persian words, structures and idioms  instead of  original Luri ones in their Luri speech.

So, Luri in cities has become mainly weak and close to Persian in urban areas. Many Luri urban young dwellers in cities are weak in speaking original Luri .On the other hand Luri it is still original and ful of Lurish words in rural areas and a smaller fraction of cities.

The Luri Wikipedia is written in very original Luri. As linguists say according to the NORMS paradigm, the original dialect of each region should be sought in rural areas among . NORMS stands for Non-mobile  Old Rural Male Speakers.

Because of the advent of Luri cultural movement in Iran during the recent years, there is a growing demand and interest among the  Luri urban youth  to improve and strengthen their Luri language, including vocabularies.

Thus, we urgently require writing in original Luri not the version of Luri that are approaching Persian, as Erik Anonby describes Luri is under overhelming pressure to approach Persian. We need to save the Luri language.

Wikipedia is always considered as an organization that advocates the linguistic diversity in the world, and allows them to have their own voice heard. Thus we kindly request the Committee to prevent the removal of Northern Luri Wikipedia. Surely, your kind support will be greatly thanked and appreciated by the Luri community in Iran.

Regards,

Mehdi Moshkriz