[Foundation-l] EFE: Indigenous languages entering Wikipedia

[Osmar Valdebenito]

Hi everyone!

Yesterday, news agency EFE published a note about the work done mainly by
Wikimedia Argentina about the development of projects in Native American
languages like aymara, guarani and mapudungun. The news have been replied
in the largest newspapers and websites of Latin America and Spain.

The work to develop Wikimedia projects in Native American languages have
been taken as a priority for the chapters members of Iberocoop (Wikimedia
Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela) and we expect this year 2012 to
work in the development of those communities of users and editors. But we
expect also the support of the Language Committee and the Wikimedia
Foundation for this work.

http://www.que.es/201202171651-lenguas-indigenas-abren-paso-wikipedia-efe.html

Here is a fast translation to English of the article (sorry for my English
btw):

Indigenous languages ​​like Guaraní and Mapuche are making their way into
Wikipedia with the help offered by the editors of the colorful encyclopedia
to teachers and students of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), the
largest in Argentina.
These presentations for teachers and students of Guaraní and Mapuche in the
Language Center of the UBA wants to "promote the development of content in
versions that are underrepresented on the Internet," said Patricio Lorente,
president of Wikimedia Argentina, local official of the encyclopedia.
The training courses were held at the headquarters of the university in
late 2011 and are planned to be repeated this year to expand the initiative.
The editors of this South American country contacted with users of
neighboring Bolivia promote the incorporation of content in Aymara, one of
the main indigenous languages ​​of that country, but is also spoken in
parts of Argentina, Peru and Chile.
According to Unesco, language preservation is a challenge considering the
danger of extinction that half of the 6,000 languages ​​in the world are
facing.
"We are concerned about the preservation of culture. That is why we teach
to those who speak these languages ​​about Wikipedia editing rules," said
the head of the subsidiary in Argentina, with an indigenous population of
about 600,000 people, according to official estimates.
Currently, the encyclopedia has about 1,500 items in Guaraní and another
1,700 in Aymara, while the Mapuche or Mapudungun, as is known, is still in
"experimental phase", he said.
However, in other Indian languages ​​such as Quechua, used in Argentina and
six other South American countries, the experience is more extensive, with
some 16,000 articles entered.
"With the Mapudungun there are some additional problems because until
recently it had no writing. And, according to the communities, they have
different ways of writing by region. So we are seeing the possibility of
applying a technical solution so everyone can view the articles in their
own dialect," said Lorente.
The main Mapuche community is in Chile, where some 600,000 members
concentrated mainly in the region of La Araucania, and also extends to the
Argentine Patagonia, with a hundred thousand members.
For its part, the Guarani is one of the two official languages ​​of
Paraguay, alongside Spanish, but also has strong presence in northern
Argentina, especially in the province of Corrientes, which is valid for the
authorities.
In general, articles entered in "Vikipeta", the Guarani version of the
encyclopedia, are small in size and are mostly associated with
geo-referenced with data on Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil, among others.
The editors of the site believe that the poverty facing these peoples
should not be an obstacle to greater difussion of their languages,
especially when those are the only languages some of them know.
"They have a very strong linguistic identity and vocation for the
preservation of the language. And Wikipedia is an encyclopedia in permanent
construction that seeks to incorporate more and more content like this," he
said Lorente.
For that, the local site editors also prepared a manual for editing in
Wikipedia to be delivered to recipients of the training.



Osmar Valdebenito Gaete

Presidente de Wikimedia Chile

http://www.wikimediachile.cl