Dear Milos,
Thank you for your quick answer, I answer some points of your message below
Le 03/06/2015 16:12, Milos Rancic a écrit :
Kichwa is far from being in the worst position, but
it's also example
for the languages with which we will be dealing in the future.
Kichwa is a language with some teaching and some written documents, and
several hundred thousand speakers. It is not an endangered language, but
it is somehow a "dominated language".
I'd suggest the approach in the few phases, as
well as it could be the
draft of the road for the similarly developed languages.
1) As you said, the first one has to be about local knowledge. It
would be good to list the categories about which the contributors
would write. That could be a common place for other languages all over
the world.
This is contrary to the Wikimedia guidelines so far
(
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_articles_every_Wikipedia_should_have).
However, I agree that this would be the correct approach for indigenous
languages
2) In a year or so start writing the most basic
scientific articles. I
think we should start with the primary school knowledge, maybe even
move to build the textbooks into the future Kichwa Wikibooks. After we
complete it, it would be possible for Kichwa children to be educated
in their native language.
Actually there is a (imperfect) system of bilingual schools in Ecuador
in indigenous areas. I guess this includes textbooks for primary school
level (so it would be the other way round compared to what you
describe). I don't have some books right now, and I live in France, but
I can use a next trip to Ecuador to find some. I agree that it would be
a very good base.
3) Around that time we should approach Academy and
talk with them
about the standardization of terminology. That would allow us to build
knowledge on high school level in five to ten years.
In other words, I'd tell you that you should go with your idea and
start collecting local knowledge in Kichwa.
Unfortunately, I live in France. However, if we get motivated by the
project newly, I can work on it with my wife who is a native speaker.
The only other question is related to the MediaWiki
interface. Is it
possible to translate the most common messages in it?
It was 100% done in 2011 (for the "core messages" or whatever the
requisite was). However, the messages have evolved and if I check it
right now, many messages are now "deprecated". This would not be such a
big work to actualize it however.
https://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=Special:Translate&language=qug&…
Actually, if I go to the incubator even now, the main messages in the
interface seem to work in kichwa.
The list of articles is here :
https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:PrefixIndex/Wp/qug
There was a request for a wikipedia in kichwa in 2011 which somehow got
stalled, which I think is a pity :
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_Kichwa
Based on your input I will start collecting
recommendations on a Meta
page.
Thank you very much for your interest !
I think Wikipedia can be a powerful tool for developing indigenous
languages and permit them to gain prestige in their own country (where
they are usually despised with the notable exception of the Guarani in
Paraguay). This would be a beautiful achievement of the WM foundation.
Yours,
Sylvain Mailler