[Wikipedia-l] About creating a new language on Wikipedia

[Berto 'd Sera]

Hoi!

This is true for every language that has its first UI developed for a wiki.
For a small number of words that totally wiki-related it's also true for
major languages, English included. "Wiki" wasn't an English word before
wikipedia.

IMHO, most small languages don't need borrowing from English at all. They
have a long and sound tradition on their own, and can basically translate
all IT related words to make them "accessible". 

We translate "Feed aggregator" as "Marossé" in piemontese, because that's
the word that historically defines the profession of "Horse trader", and it
has the added meaning of "the one who always knows what's going on where".

"Ping" is something you can pretty much translate with the verb you'd use to
"Knock at the door", etc.

One of the reasons behind the weakening of local languages (mid-sized
official languages included) is in that at a certain point in history they
gave up "explaining" things. In instead, they privileged the English
speaking layer of society.

This eventually damaged English itself. The number of English words that are
drifting away from their original meaning because of the way in which they
are used in foreign languages is constantly increasing. I see that
frequently in business, as the number of "supposed to be in English" emails
and faxes coming from Italy is constantly growing.

As a result, people come to me asking to translate "from Italian English to
English". Since telepathy does not exist usually all I can do is have the
communication sent back and ask the guy to write in Italian. 

Importing English words is rarely doing any good both to your language AND
English; unless a native population really is bilingual in English.

Bèrto ‘d Sèra
Personagi dl’ann 2006 për l’arvista american-a Time (tanme tuti vojàotri)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html
 
-----Original Message-----
From: wikipedia-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:wikipedia-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Roberto
Bahamonde Andrade
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 5:17 AM
To: wikipedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] About creating a new language on Wikipedia

However, there are many cases on communities can't avoid that "original
research". Many American languages (Quechua, Náhuatl, Cherokee) haven't
words for "edit", "talk page" or "internet", then is necessary find the form
of say such concepts. One way to solve it is paraphrasis and another way is
the borrowing of a word of English or Spanish and adapt it to phonetics of
the language. No matter the way used, the community of Wikipedians had made
original research.

Bye.

2007/7/5, GerardM <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com>:
>
> Hoi,
> In the language committee we are not really happy with artificial
> languages
> or with languages long dead that are given a new lease of life because "we
> can". In dead languages you have to do original research in order to be
> able
> to name the concepts that are modern and foreign to that language as we
> know
> it. Wikipedia is not about original research and you have to create new
> words and in the process change the language in order to write an
> encyclopaedia that is to be used in this day and age.
> Thanks,
>      Gerard
>
> On 7/5/07, Tim Starling <tstarling at wikimedia.org> wrote:
> >
> > Berto 'd Sera wrote:
> > > Seriously, how would you manage? Do we call up the mobs to scream and
> > swear
> > > as we did before, or do we nominate 7 Valencian and 7 Catalan Knights
> > and
> > > make it a Royal Tournament? That's all the choice you're given, you
> > know?
> > >
> > > You EITHER
> > >    choose an external reference
> > > OR
> > >    choose yourself.
> >
> > If you're deferring to an external authority to avoid conflict, or to
> > reduce workload, then that's fine. Just don't say you're doing it
> because
> > you want to follow the "no original research" policy. Most Wikipedia
> > policies are common sense. NOR is probably the only one which would be
> > disasterous if it were generalised to life outside Wikipedia.
> >
> > -- Tim Starling
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Wikipedia-l mailing list
> > Wikipedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> > http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l
> >
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-- 
"Nunca pensé que justo este invierno sería el más frío que he visto pasar:
Yo no sirvo paramar"
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