Hi Gerard and all of you,
thinking about the code I was just considering some points.
What I noted on the page you gave me for the Italian version of the
ISO-code is that you use a mixed version for language identifiers -
the two letter code and where there's no two letter code the three
letter code - is this correct? I also noted that not all languages are
present in the ISO-3-letter-code - so they are standardised, but not
completely. This would obviously lead to an own wiktionary standard.
I am asking as I thought about compiling a list of the used language
codes for wiktionary and then add the several translations of the
languages names asking freinds and colleagues to complete the list.
Normally in the translation world the two letter code is used.
I'll then add the list to my sourceforge project (wsi-glossary:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wsi-glossary/) you can see who is
contributing right now with integrations to the lists here:
http://wiki.wesolveitnet.com/wakka.php?wakka=WsiGlossaryContributors.
I should modify licensing (mine up to now was the same as the one used
for the OmegaT manual to GNU FDL - I have to check out if this is
possible without problems on sourceforge net. I am to new to
OpenContent to know all about this - so another thing to be done
immediately).
If you are working on a multilanguage list e.g. of trees, birds,
vegetables etc. etc. please consider seriously to have these lists
integrated by other people as well and have it ready somewhere for
download or just integrate it into wsi-glossary. Certain kinds of work
can be done even by schools in language lessons - e.g. the Italian
Thesaurus for
OpenOffice.org was created with the help of a school
where the teachers were the team leaders and during the classes the
pupils did something that made "sense" to them. Having them work
directly in wiktionary online is impossible for most schools as
computers don't have Internet access (or only a few of them) and so
working on tables is much easier.
If you prefer not to hand out the list: give out single terms or
gourps of terms like this:
I need these term(s)
house
cat
mouse
etc.
in the following languages:
German
French
Italian
etc.
I can then publish these parts or on my portal or send the request to
different lists of translators - so step by step it is possible to
integrate and improve.
Best wishes from Italy,
Sabine
Wikimedia does use two letter ISO 639 codes and when they do not exist
they do use the three letter codes. There are missing ISO codes. There
are also the SIL codes but personally I think mixing these three codes
makes a mess. Preferably ISO adds missing codes for languages.
For cooperation to work best, things like XML can be considered. GEMET
uses it, they have people knowledgable regarding thesauri XML open content.
When you have an application that can import and export XML data, you
can work off line locally and export the data at the end of the day. The
start might be the Italian Open Office list and add definitions in
Italian export it and share it with the world. An even better start
might be words in another wikipedia with an Italian translation; the
translations TO Italian are then already known.
The most important thing is to prevent double work and the continued
checking of the stuff that is available. Start with producing
definitions for all the Languages. Many translations are available on
the nl:wiktionary. The articles can be copied to it:wiktionary just add
content to some templates. They do need checking as well... :)
Thanks,
Gerard