Re: [Wikipedia-l] Re: Request for new Wikipedia: bokmål

[Lars Aronsson]

Andre Engels wrote:
> Here my proposal on what to do with no:
> * Create nb: for Norsk Bokmål
> * Move the current contents of no: to nb:
> * Create on the main page of no: as a sort of disambiguation page
> between nb: and nn:
> * Let other pages on no: redirect to nb: so existing links keep working.

Are there really any no.wikipedia contributors who want this? I mean,
outside of those who prefer the nn.wikipedia? Is this a "we should
change our name" or "they should change their name" kind of issue?
Or, if someone supports this change, how do we know they are among the 
"we" people and not covert nn.wikipedia supporters?

I'm Swedish and not contributing to any of no or nn, even though I
have no problem in reading and understanding them.  As much as I
appreciate the efforts made to support dialects and small languages
such as Icelandic and written Nynorsk, I think it would be a pity to
abandon no.wikipedia and "Norwegian" as the name for it.  To most
non-Norwegians, and I think also for many Norwegians, the concept of
the "Norwegian" language (written and spoken) is easy to understand
and unambigious, with Nynorsk being little more than a written
dialect, such as we all have spoken dialects in various parts of our
countries.  We also have no problem with American English being called
"English" or Hochdeutsch being called "German", despite their
separation from England and Plattdeutsch (Low Saxon).  Some 10--15
percent of Norwegians write in Nynorsk, about twice the population of
Iceland.  The no.wikipedia currently has 10 times more articles than
nn.wikipedia.  Even if the gap is closing, it seems likely that
no.wikipedia will continue to be the larger one by a factor of 2 or
more.


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se