I have (again) hacked together a minimal demo of a multilanguage portal. This is not for its good looks but for the function it provides.
To be amazed by it, dial http://magnusmanske.de/wikipedia/portal.php
The page is generated from two local files containing the text and the article numbers, respectively. Calling the script with http://magnusmanske.de/wikipedia/portal.php?update will update the local files from online files, which are hardcoded into the script. The article number file, which would normally be generated automatically once a day, is at http://magnusmanske.de/wikipedia/num.txt and the text, to be editable for all, is at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/PortalText
Based on these files, and on your browser settings, it will highlight what *might* be your favourite language(s). If you set multiple languages in your browser, it will highlight them all. If your browser sets different weights for these languages, they will appear in different shades of grey.
Yes, there is no other layout whatsoever. Don't complain. Web designers to the rescue!
Magnus
P.S.: Script is in CVS HEAD; "portal.php" in maintenance