Please, don't think about one wikipedia for all swiss-german dialects. That would be the same thing like the Alemannic wikipedia: An uncommon mixture of native dialects. Surely all Baseldytsch speakers understand the Züritüütsch (zurich-german) speakers and vice versa.
And please tell me: Why is there already a Plattdüütsch wikipedia? And a Lëtzebuergesch wikipedia? They also seem to be dialects (although Lëtzebuergesch is official in Luxemburg). So, why shouldn't there be other dialect wikipedias? In Swabian, in Bernese German, in Saxony-German?
And yes, Baseldytsch has ist own orthography and dictionary (which many dialects don't). I think that's also an argument for this wikipedia. The interface are already translated into Baseldytsch. So lets just put it online under bsd.wikipedia.org and we shall see how it'll be running and what the reactions are. Then we can take it offline, or we just let it be in its developpment to a useful encyclopedia.
The thing is though, these are intended to be dialect groups.
As such, we have Platt and not a dialect of any particular city, and Lëtzebuergesch because it is the national language of Luxembourg (although it is indeed similar to surrounding dialects, it also has lots of French loanwords).
I would have no objection to a Swabian Wikipedia and all sorts of other Wikipedias for German languages (vs Germanic languages or German language).
However I'm not sure about Baseldytsch or other dialects (or "subdialects" in some opinions). My personal philosophy says that if people want to build a Baseldytsch Wikipedia and it is not actually identical to another language or dialect, and Baseldytsch is a natural language (or for that matter a conlang with native speakers), then it should be created.
So when it comes down to it, I support it, yes.
Mark
On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 12:55:20 +0100, David Rossel cdamvvwgs@hotmail.com wrote:
Please, don't think about one wikipedia for all swiss-german dialects. That would be the same thing like the Alemannic wikipedia: An uncommon mixture of native dialects. Surely all Baseldytsch speakers understand the Züritüütsch (zurich-german) speakers and vice versa.
And please tell me: Why is there already a Plattdüütsch wikipedia? And a Lëtzebuergesch wikipedia? They also seem to be dialects (although Lëtzebuergesch is official in Luxemburg). So, why shouldn't there be other dialect wikipedias? In Swabian, in Bernese German, in Saxony-German?
And yes, Baseldytsch has ist own orthography and dictionary (which many dialects don't). I think that's also an argument for this wikipedia. The interface are already translated into Baseldytsch. So lets just put it online under bsd.wikipedia.org and we shall see how it'll be running and what the reactions are. Then we can take it offline, or we just let it be in its developpment to a useful encyclopedia.
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On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 12:55:20 +0100, David Rossel cdamvvwgs@hotmail.com wrote:
Please, don't think about one wikipedia for all swiss-german dialects. That would be the same thing like the Alemannic wikipedia: An uncommon mixture of native dialects. Surely all Baseldytsch speakers understand the Züritüütsch (zurich-german) speakers and vice versa.
And please tell me: Why is there already a Plattdüütsch wikipedia? And a Lëtzebuergesch wikipedia? They also seem to be dialects (although Lëtzebuergesch is official in Luxemburg). So, why shouldn't there be other dialect wikipedias? In Swabian, in Bernese German, in Saxony-German?
Apart from these both having official status as a language, it is definitely the case that at least nds: weakens your case more than it strengthens it. It is not the dialect of one single city or small region, but a combination of all dialects in a large region - in the case of Lower Saxon, according to ethnologue Germany 'below [i.e. north of] the line Aachen-Wittenberg', plus parts of the east and the northeast of the Netherlands.
Andre Engels
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