Dear All,
We are very pleased to announce the launch of Santali Language Wikipedia (
https://sat.wikipedia.org). The site has been launched on August 2, 2018
and, after the import of pages from Wikimedia Incubator and some
maintenance work, it’s now open for all. Santali Language’s own alphabet,
Ol Chiki, has been used as the alphabet of this Wikipedia. Santali is
a language in the Munda subfamily of Austroasiatic languages, spoken by
around 7.4 million people in South Asia (Bangladesh, India and Nepal).
This is a very special moment for us and has been made possible because of
the joint effort by Santali Language Wikipedian’s from Bangladesh, India
and Nepal. Wikimedia Bangladesh and Bangla Wikimedia Community
congratulates the Santali Language Community for their accomplishment and
are honored to be a part of this tremendous achievement. Manik Soren, a
dedicated Santali Wikipedian from Bangladesh, along with some very active
Santali Language Wikipedians from Bangladesh and India has been
instrumental in this effort. We would also like to thank Shabab Mustafa,
President of Wikimedia Bangladesh and Nahid Sultan, a very active steward
and Secretary of Wikimedia Bangladesh, for coordinating the effort in
Bangladesh and Odia Wikimedians User Group for coordinating the effort in
India.
It is worth mentioning that the process of creating a Santali Language
Wikipedia began in 2012 and, later on, got momentum in February, 2017. Back
in 2012, Wikimedia Bangladesh organized a Wikipedia meetup and workshop
with the Santali Language Community in Dinajpur District of Bangladesh with
the goal of launching a Santali Language Wikipedia. However, that process
slowed down after some time. Then in September 2017, Wikimedia Bangladesh
organized another meeting with Santali Language Community in a Dhaka
Wikipedia meetup where a decision was made to expedite the launch of the
Wikipedia. Following that discussion, a workshop was organized by Wikimedia
Bangladesh for Santali Language Wikipedians on December 30, 2017. Santali
Language Wikipedians from India also participated in that program through
online discussion. Subsequently, another workshop was organized for Santali
Language Community in India on March 11, 2018 in collaboration with Odia
Wikimedians User Group.
After months of work, Santali Language Wikipedia got the approval of
Language Committee on June 28, 2018 and finally, the Santali Wikipedia site
was launched on August 2, 2018.
Let us congratulate and welcome the Santali Language Community.
Cheers!
Ali Haidar Khan
Executive Committee Member, Wikimedia Bangladesh