Hoi,
There are several issues at play. First off, Berber as a macro language
consists of in total 25 languages.These languages are not only spoken in
Morocco and Algeria. Having one language created by government(s) subsume
all 25 languages and cultures is a bit much.
The language policy does not allow for created languages and it does not
differentiate between the reasons for the creation of a language.
The language committee assesses for the Wikimedia board what the merits are
for a proposal for a new language. It has some wriggle room but typically
it chooses not to make exceptions. It would help when the language
committee is provided with some documentation that this Berber language is
taught in schools in both countries. This would offset the issue of it
being a constructed language quite a bit.
It would probably not be hard to convince ISO to add a language code for
this Berber language. Not hard because there is governmental support for
this.
Thanks,
Gerard
On 8 December 2011 16:09, Tussna . <tussna(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hoi iedereen / Hi all,
I've been reading your e-mails on Ahirani Wikipedia creation. And I wanted
to raise questions about the Berber Wikipedia project: *Wp/ber*
The proposal for a Berber Wikipedia (with the code: *ber*, *ISO 639-2 and
ISO
639-5*) was rejected a while ago because Berber doesn't have an ISO 639-3
code. Although, it does have ISO 639-2 and ISO 639-5.
The Wikipedia board argued that Berber "is not a language but is a language
group".
The fact is: it is both.
The Wikipedia board advised to start multiple Berber Wikipedias for the
dozen of Berber dialects which do have ISO 639-3 codes (like Wp/rif,
Wp/shi, Wp/kab, and Wp/tzm). Some call them "languages" because they have
the ISO codes and thus have the status of "language".
But the motivation is low for the Berber dialects. Now the Berber language
(in its unified standard form) is official in the Moroccan constitution and
is recognized as a national language in Algeria's constitution, and is
taught in both countries' schools, there is a solid basis for considering
it a language (not just a scholarly group of languages/dialects).
So my questions are:
-How do we convince the Wikipedia board to reconsider the Wp/ber project
and approve it?
-What about the option of "macro-language"?
For example, the Arabic Wikipedia (which is written in a standard Arabic
language that nobody really speaks in daily life) is based on the
"macro-language" approach, eventhough there are tens of Arabic dialects
(Egyptian Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, Saudi Arabic...), each one with its own ISO
639-3 language code.
There is a lot of motivation and enthusiasm for the unified Berber language
on Facebook and elsewhere.
I personally know at least 5 people who can contribute to the Wp/ber
project on a regular basis.
The only thing that hinders them is the rejection of Wp/ber
The Berber language is written using the Latin alphabet in Algeria and the
Tifinagh (indigenous) alphabet in Morocco.
I think it could be a double-alphabet Wikipedia like the Kurdish Wikipedia
or the Serbian Wikipedia, where the same content is automatically and
identically available in two alphabets.
This is the link for the Wp/ber project:
http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/ber/Tasna_Tamezwarut
In the following PDF link, you'll find an example of a standard pan-Berber
specialized dictionary (published by Moroccan and French linguistic
institutes):
http://www.ircam.ma/doc/publica/vocabulaire_grammatical.pdf
It's a Berber - English - French - Arabic dictionary of linguistics
terminology.
Best regards,
Moubarik Belkasim
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l>
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