Dear Wikimedians,
Some of you might be recovering from the Wikimania fatigue. Those of you who have already recovered, I wanted to pick your brain about something that came up multiple times during discussions but none really seem to have a clear answer.
Which script (writing system) an oral language speaker would use for creating an entry on (gateway [1]) projects like Wiktionary or Wikibooks or even uploading a list of words on Commons using a tool like Lingua Libre? Will it be the script used for the official language of the region where the former language is from?[2] This is a bit controversial as native speakers of many indigenous languages would see this as a form of colonization. Will it be the w:International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)? This is probably the least controversial but a common and average user might not be able to read IPA as the latter was created by linguists and was created for linguistic and scholarly studies rather than for everyday use.
Wikimedians who are native speakers of languages with less written/recorded documentation and individuals who work on such languages are more encouraged to share their inputs based on past experience.
1. Gateway project: This is a made-up term to define the Wikimedia projects that are more welcoming to newbies and do not require stringent citation as almost all oral languages would lack that. It was fascinating to see Amir challenging that it only takes about 30 seconds to add an entry to Wiktionary ( https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amir_Aharoni_demonstrating_how_to_ad... )
Subhashish
This is a really interesting topic. Those who are used to the latin script normally don't get the difficulties to answer this question, but it can be a real challenge. An alphanumeric random code could be an answer, but we are still in the same point! ________________________________ From: Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org on behalf of Subhashish Panigrahi psubhashish@gmail.com Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2019 9:25 PM To: Languages@lists.wikimedia.org Languages@lists.wikimedia.org Cc: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Which script oral language will use anyway?
Dear Wikimedians,
Some of you might be recovering from the Wikimania fatigue. Those of you who have already recovered, I wanted to pick your brain about something that came up multiple times during discussions but none really seem to have a clear answer.
Which script (writing system) an oral language speaker would use for creating an entry on (gateway [1]) projects like Wiktionary or Wikibooks or even uploading a list of words on Commons using a tool like Lingua Libre? Will it be the script used for the official language of the region where the former language is from?[2] This is a bit controversial as native speakers of many indigenous languages would see this as a form of colonization. Will it be the w:International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)? This is probably the least controversial but a common and average user might not be able to read IPA as the latter was created by linguists and was created for linguistic and scholarly studies rather than for everyday use.
Wikimedians who are native speakers of languages with less written/recorded documentation and individuals who work on such languages are more encouraged to share their inputs based on past experience.
1. Gateway project: This is a made-up term to define the Wikimedia projects that are more welcoming to newbies and do not require stringent citation as almost all oral languages would lack that. It was fascinating to see Amir challenging that it only takes about 30 seconds to add an entry to Wiktionary ( https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amir_Aharoni_demonstrating_how_to_ad... )
Subhashish _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Suhashih
You are right that this could be a controversial choice -- indeed it is inherently political and there is no way of avoiding that fact. So where will the decision be taken, on what grounds and by what athority?
Jeff
On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 8:26 PM Subhashish Panigrahi psubhashish@gmail.com wrote:
Dear Wikimedians,
Some of you might be recovering from the Wikimania fatigue. Those of you who have already recovered, I wanted to pick your brain about something that came up multiple times during discussions but none really seem to have a clear answer.
Which script (writing system) an oral language speaker would use for creating an entry on (gateway [1]) projects like Wiktionary or Wikibooks or even uploading a list of words on Commons using a tool like Lingua Libre? Will it be the script used for the official language of the region where the former language is from?[2] This is a bit controversial as native speakers of many indigenous languages would see this as a form of colonization. Will it be the w:International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)? This is probably the least controversial but a common and average user might not be able to read IPA as the latter was created by linguists and was created for linguistic and scholarly studies rather than for everyday use.
Wikimedians who are native speakers of languages with less written/recorded documentation and individuals who work on such languages are more encouraged to share their inputs based on past experience.
- Gateway project: This is a made-up term to define the Wikimedia projects
that are more welcoming to newbies and do not require stringent citation as almost all oral languages would lack that. It was fascinating to see Amir challenging that it only takes about 30 seconds to add an entry to Wiktionary (
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amir_Aharoni_demonstrating_how_to_ad... )
Subhashish _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Perhaps this is something that should be left as the choice of the volunteers who contribute the content? Whatever they feel comfortable with and are competent in. It may vary between contributors for the same language. Once content is published, anyone with the skills and desire can transliterate to any other script system of their choice. Others can translate to any other language of their choice. This is the wiki way of doing things. If we have support for a script system it can be used, if not that becomes a technical problem. Cheers, Peter
-----Original Message----- From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Jeff Hawke Sent: Tuesday, September 3, 2019 12:58 PM To: Wikimedia Mailing List Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Which script oral language will use anyway?
Suhashih
You are right that this could be a controversial choice -- indeed it is inherently political and there is no way of avoiding that fact. So where will the decision be taken, on what grounds and by what athority?
Jeff
On Thu, Aug 22, 2019 at 8:26 PM Subhashish Panigrahi psubhashish@gmail.com wrote:
Dear Wikimedians,
Some of you might be recovering from the Wikimania fatigue. Those of you who have already recovered, I wanted to pick your brain about something that came up multiple times during discussions but none really seem to have a clear answer.
Which script (writing system) an oral language speaker would use for creating an entry on (gateway [1]) projects like Wiktionary or Wikibooks or even uploading a list of words on Commons using a tool like Lingua Libre? Will it be the script used for the official language of the region where the former language is from?[2] This is a bit controversial as native speakers of many indigenous languages would see this as a form of colonization. Will it be the w:International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)? This is probably the least controversial but a common and average user might not be able to read IPA as the latter was created by linguists and was created for linguistic and scholarly studies rather than for everyday use.
Wikimedians who are native speakers of languages with less written/recorded documentation and individuals who work on such languages are more encouraged to share their inputs based on past experience.
- Gateway project: This is a made-up term to define the Wikimedia projects
that are more welcoming to newbies and do not require stringent citation as almost all oral languages would lack that. It was fascinating to see Amir challenging that it only takes about 30 seconds to add an entry to Wiktionary (
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amir_Aharoni_demonstrating_how_to_ad... )
Subhashish _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
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