New language introduction - Wikipedia-l

2 Dec 2004

I would like to introduce a new language on Wikipedia. The language is called chiTumbuka.
It is a language widely spoken in the northern and north-central regions of Malawi,
eastern parts of Zambia and to a lesser extent, southern parts of Tanzania, Africa. It is
estimated that chiTumbuka is spoken by between 4 and 5 million people and
'understood' by a further million or so.
The main reason I want to start a section for this language is to encourage young people
to speak it and at the same time enable our parents, some of whom have limited knowledge
of English, have access to information via, among other media, the internet.

With the (coming?) introduction of Wikinews, it is my hope that I will have time to
translate some of the news into this language. When I was young, there used to be
English-Tumbuka dictionaries but I haven't seen a single one for over a decade. I want
to preserve my language and hope to introduce an English-Tumbuka e-dictionary along the
way. This might also help tourists from Anglophone countries like the US, the UK, Canada,
Australia know a few phrases of the language before visiting the aforementioned countries
in which the language is spoken. 

Any suggestions as to how I can go about setting this language up will be highly
appreciated. To avoid clogging other members' inboxes, please contact me privately on
dinnette(a)softhome.net with whatever suggestions/assistance you may have. Thanks for you
time.

Kind regards

Dinnette