[Foundation-l] Supporting languages is supporting people

[Marco Chiesa]

GerardM ha scritto:
> It is wrong to suggest that the User Interface is not a vital component of a
> successful Wikipedia. With some regularity projects are voted to be closed
> down. They are typically programs that do not have a good localisation, they
> are typically programs that do not have a community. They are typically
> Wikipedias that have been started prematurely. Yes, there are Wikipedias
> that are doing fine, the issue is that many people are upset by Wikipedias
> failing. We lose support for adding new languages with more projects
> failing.
>
> What we aim for in new Wikipedias is project that provide good information
> to the people. We should not expect people to read any other language. A
> Wikipedia is there to provide people with knowledge and for this an
> appropriate user interface is essential. As long as the User Interface is
> not localised it is not yet ready to go life for the people to find
> information in their language.
>
>
>   
I'm sorry but I cannot fully agree on these points. While I agree that 
it is important that a user can have the interface translated in his/her 
own language, this does not mean that such language and the project's 
language are the same one. For example, Latin or Esperanto have 
basically no native speaker, and editors may be happier having their own 
mother tongue for the interface. It becomes even more absurd for those 
languages which do not have a standard koiné, but only dialects. This is 
the case for most of the regional languages of Italy, such as Lombard or 
Emilian-Romagnan. These project have 1 wikipedia each because there is 1 
ISO-code for the language, but in many cases articles have more than one 
version, to cover the different dialects. But they can (actually, must - 
see above) have only one localisation, which of course for many users 
will be in a different <strike>language</strike> variant of the 
language. Ok, dialects are generally similar enough to be mutually 
comprehensive, but it will still be quite awkward to have an interface 
in what looks like a funny version of your language (to make an example, 
it would be like having the interface in English with Scots spelling. 
And of course, there are only very few native speakers of those 
languages which are not bilingual and speaking at least another language 
(not necessarily Italian), and who may prefer to use the interface in 
the other mother tongue; very few of the non bilingual people would 
anyway have access to a computer.

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