The Belarusan language is spoken by 9,081,102 people worldwide
according to the Ethnologue; in Belarus it is spoken by 6,715,000, or
65% of the population (most of the rest are native speakers of
Russian, Trasianka, Yiddish, Polish, or Ukrainian).
In Belarusan schools, the Belarusan language is a cumpulsory subject
for all students who wish to graduate, totalling on average between
75,000 and 100,000 per year (graduates).
The Belarusan language used in schools and by the government and by
the vast majority of the Belarusan people is called Narkamauka,
codified in the 1960s.
However, some Belarusan nationalists favour a return to the older
Belarusan codified in the 1920s, called Tarashkievitsa. Some of the
more radical nationalists also favour a switch to the Latin alphabet,
called Latsinka.
Currently there is a fight on Meta between proponents of the official
Belarusan and proponents of the alternative Belarusan.
By sheer chance, the proponents of the alternative style were the
first to arrive at be.wikipedia, and all of the administrators there
write in the alternative style, and the entire interface is written in
it too.
New articles are supposedly allowed to be written in either variety,
however the vast majority of existing articles are written in the
alternative style. According to proponents of the official
orthography, this makes it intimidating to newcomers, and they give
that as the reason why the Belarusan Wikipedia is so small still.
You can see the entire debate here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages#Present_Belarusia…
Now, obviously the answer to such questions is generally "resolve
within the community". However, in this case some people are claiming
that the community leaders are acting improperly by deleting new
articles in Narkamauka and then a few minutes later posting the same
articles written in Tarashkievitsa. People also allege that policy on
be.wp favours the alternative spelling over official spelling, and
that it is not possible to change it without outside help because the
admins at be.wp are a dictatorship.
In this case I think it is appropriate for the international Wikimedia
community to get involved. Clearly a neutral third party is needed to
evaluate the claims of both sides and make things right.
Mark
--
Refije dirije lanmè yo paske nou posede pwòp bato.