Hello.
I write to you because I think it would be important to make another translation of Wikipedia. I would like to make a translation in Chadian. Of course, it's not a widespread language but we are many to speak it. This idea went to me when I was showing to my friend the encyclopedia. He said that it would be very useful to have a Chadian encyclopedia. Everybody was enthusiastic about this idea. That's why I am asking if we can translate the encyclopedia. Of course, the Chadian-speakers will be great to see an encyclopedia of their own language. It will help people to acquire knowledge about the language and to practice it. I write to you because I am following the steps written at this link (http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_start_a_new_wikipedia).
Chadian is very small language spoken everywhere in the world : North America and Europe mainly. It's a non-recognized language and it is using the Cyrillic alphabet which is rare. Chadian is as important as Esperanto, Volapük or any other languages on Earth. On that, I wish that you will give to us the opportunity to have our own encyclopedia... It will be a very big step for our language. Thank you, waiting your answer, Bobby.
Desmond Tutu wrote:
I write to you because I think it would be important to make another translation of Wikipedia. I would like to make a translation in Chadian.
As far as my research indicates, Chadian is a dialect of Arabic. Do you think it's worth having a whole new Wikipedia in Chadian Arabic?
It also doesn't seem to have an ISO language code; Arabic is 'ar', and the country code for Chad is 'td', so would that make it http://ar-td.wikipedia.org/?
Timwi
Timwi wrote:
Desmond Tutu wrote:
I write to you because I think it would be important to make another translation of Wikipedia. I would like to make a translation in Chadian.
As far as my research indicates, Chadian is a dialect of Arabic. Do you think it's worth having a whole new Wikipedia in Chadian Arabic?
I think there's a little chain-pulling going on here - the "North America and Europe" but not Africa is suspicious, and I don't think there are any dialects of Arabic written in Cyrillic (but we can't discount the medieval tales of Russians led by Prester Ivan who settled around the southern shores of Lake Chad :-) ).
Stan
Of course it has an ISO Language code... SHU... http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=SHU
But I have no idea where the cyrillic characters part came from. I can find no information ANYWHERE that suggests there are arabic dialects written in cyrillic. I smell a spoof.
Rick
Timwi wrote:
Desmond Tutu wrote:
I write to you because I think it would be important to make another translation of Wikipedia. I would like to make a translation in Chadian.
As far as my research indicates, Chadian is a dialect of Arabic. Do you think it's worth having a whole new Wikipedia in Chadian Arabic?
It also doesn't seem to have an ISO language code; Arabic is 'ar', and the country code for Chad is 'td', so would that make it http://ar-td.wikipedia.org/?
Timwi
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On Tue, 06 Jul 2004 12:14:58 -0500, Rick Boatright wrote:
Of course it has an ISO Language code... SHU... http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=SHU
Careful! SIL / Ethnologue codes are not ISO 639 codes.
Many languages have an Ethnologue code but not ISO 639 code, and some languages have an ISO 639 code but not an Ethnologue code.
But I have no idea where the cyrillic characters part came from. I can find no information ANYWHERE that suggests there are arabic dialects written in cyrillic. I smell a spoof.
I suspect that the "Chadian" the OP talks about is not the variety of Arabic spoken in Chad, but a minor conlang with a confusingly similar name. (I say "minor" because I feel that if it were in any way notable, I would have heard of it by now.)
So not a spoof, but simply a minor conlang with a confusing name, if I understand correctly.
Desmond Tutu: Are there any people with Chadian as their first language?
Cheers, Philip
Philip Newton wrote:
I suspect that the "Chadian" the OP talks about is not the variety of Arabic spoken in Chad, but a minor conlang with a confusingly similar name. (I say "minor" because I feel that if it were in any way notable, I would have heard of it by now.)
I was thinking the same — why else was Esperanto and Volapük mentioned and not some naturally developed languages?
Arabic spoken in Chad, but a minor conlang with a confusingly similar name. (I say "minor" because I feel that if it were in any way notable, I would have heard of it by now.)
So not a spoof, but simply a minor conlang with a confusing name, if I understand correctly.
"As important as Esperanto or Volapuk" should be a fairly obvious tip-off--it says something when you go on the defensive in the same sentence in which you introduce the language.
A reasonably extensive Google search hasn't produced a single reference, leading me to believe that the original poster may have invented it himself.
So not a spoof, but simply a minor conlang with a confusing name, if I understand correctly.
Langmaker.org which has info on hundreds of conlangs doesn't mention it.
The impact of Esperanto and Volapuk is considerable since in Eo's case it is used by thousands of people around the world today, Volapuk in the early 20th Cent. may have been as popular. It really doesn't speak well of a conlang to try to compare itself with Eo and Vo. Or with Latin as in the last post. (Hey, even Toki Pona probably has more speakers than this "Chadian" conlang :-)
Better to have these "Chadian" speakers use MediaWiki to make their own site and then consider its progress... I'd suggest the author registers it with Langmaker.org and other conlang sites; if there is anyone interested in helping with the project that's a likely source of helpers in making a conlang wiki work out.
Cheers, Jay B.
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