Well, the reason why we have separate Indonesian Malay
and Malaysian Malay wikipedias is the fact that these
languages are quite distinct although both are
perfectly mutually intelligible. This may sounds
paradoxal but it is a fact.
I have to say that the differences between these two
languages are mostly on the level of vocabulary. This
is due to the different histories of the two
languages. Indonesian Malay has been heavily
influenced by Dutch, Javanese and Sanskrit. While on
the other hand Malaysian Malay has been heavily
influenced by English and Arabic.
So this fact can lead to a great difference between
the two languages.
I must admit that some kind of concensus can be
reached but I don't think the Indonesian speaking
community is willing to merge with the Malaysian
speaking community and vice versa. For example, the
Indonesian language interface for Wikipedia is based
on the Malaysian language interface. And I got many
complaints from Indonesian speakers.
Although similar to the situation between the
difference of American English and Commonwealth
English, it is also different. Unlike Americans or
British who have been regularly exposed to each other
languages, the same cannot be said of Malaysians and
Indonesians. In fact it was forbidden for a long time
to import (some) books from Malaysia in Indonesia and
vice versa. So it is also politically charged. This
may also clarify the fact why we have separate
Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian wikipedias.
Meursault2004 alias Revo Arka Giri S. a sysop on the
Indonesian and Malay wikipedias.
--- Michael Snow <wikipedia(a)earthlink.net> wrote:
Tim Starling wrote:
Mark Williamson wrote:
>Hi all,
>I have a question: why do we have separate
Wikipedias for Malay and
Indonesian?
I've often asked the same question, this is my
personal favourite
linguistic hobby horse. Presumably any merge would
have to occur with
much input and help from the editor communities on
each wiki, and I'm
yet to make contact with any of them. They
don't
seem to be too
concerned about the issue themselves, judging by
the fact that none of
them has brought a merge proposal to the Board,
the
developers or this
list.
Is there anybody who happens to participate in both
communities? If so,
they might be best placed to explain the situation.
--Michael Snow
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