Talk:Language committee/2009

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Please do not post any new comments on this page. This is a discussion archive first created in 2009, although the comments contained were likely posted before and after this date. See current discussion.

[edit] Requested updates

[edit] Wikipedia Bakhtiari

please update the page of unoficial analysis of the bakhtiari Wikipedia.[[1]]--Gh-b 17:49, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Request maded for "Dalmatian"

[2] Seams to be an spamming user. The languages he prefer, does not have an ISO 639-2 listing. All of them are dialects of croatian, serbian and bosnian. The arguments he give, are nationalistical attacs against croatian and bosnian integrity. Please take a look at his edits he is here to provoke. Thanks. --Seha 14:58, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Done, proposal had been rejected. --Millosh 03:16, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Aproving multiple arabic languages

As you recently approved the Egyptian language Wikipedia arz.wikipedia.org would u be willing to approve an Iraqi, Lebanese, Saudi, Syrian, Jordanian and Yemeni language Wikipedia on the same basis of the Egyptian language Wikipedia? All of them are not dialects but include words from English, French, Turkish and other language. These are not official languages but are daily spoken by the countries with millions of people speaking these languages.--Diaa abdelmoneim 01:56, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Projects which do not line up with actual language codes

May I ask if there are any plans to "correct" projects whose MW codes do not conform to the ISO codes, which presumably have greater weight and magnitude than our local MW codes? To clarify, I am speaking of projects such as the Norman Wikipedia, which is currently in the possession of the SIL code for Narom, and the Alemannic Wikipedia, currently using the SIL code for Tosk Albanian. Certainly, I have to imagine that, in the absence of a project move tab, such an undertaking would be a sizable one, even for smaller projects, and would be a disruption to its editors and readers. However, considering the chances that the ISO codes will change to fit us, I wonder if such a thing might be worthwhile, longterm. Many thanks for your time and consideration. Atelaes 15:23, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

We have been waiting on it for a long time too, but a while ago Brion announced that he will rename them. SPQRobin ^(inc!) 16:49, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Interestingly, however, he did not mention either of the issues which I have brought up here. Does anyone know how to bring them to his attention? Atelaes 03:45, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Those cases have been brought up in the rest of the discussion (there are links to "next message"), and he said he will do them as well. SPQRobin ^(inc!) 16:40, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Excellent. Thanks very much for your help. Atelaes 23:12, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

I hope you guys realize that while handy, many SIL codes are based on erroneous classifications. The reason for this is simply that the goal of the Ethnologue is not to have detailed reports on European languages and such, but to document lesser known languages in third world countries. Due to this, basically any Joe Blow can submit a report on languages that SIL does not bother investigating, and this is what has assumably happened with Alemannic. The current classification of Alemannic by SIL and the "gsw" code is at odds with about 150 years of dialectological research. We are currently working on a proposal draft to the Ethnologue to update their report and codes for Alemannic, see here als:Benutzer:Chlämens/Ethnologue. So I am pleading for a little bit of patience here so that we won't have to move the Alemannic Wikipedia yet again once the Ethnologue rectifies their classification. --Clemens 02:41, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

The Alemannic and Norman Wikipedia should never have taken a code for another language in the first place. This was insane at the time and it still is. Your assertion that anyone can request a language is right, however getting one is a different thing. It is good that you try to work out the issues with the ISO-639-3 folks however the ISO-639-6 folks are likely to be of as much or even more interest to you. Thanks, GerardM 07:15, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

The choice of code was a decision taken by the developer at the time of the wiki's creation in November 2003 (Brion Vibber, I guess). So tell him, his decision was insane. I personally disagree with that notion. ISO 639 codes were created to make computers understand what language a document is in (well, for librarians too and everybody else who has to handle many different languages but cannot possibly distinguish them by just looking at them). It's a good thing to inform the computer about the language the document is written in and we should always do it if possible. But if it is not possible (for example if there is no valid code for the language), well, that's the computer's problem. Any code is better than having no project. The code should serve the machine to serve the human. And not the other way round. --::Slomox:: >< 17:59, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Best practices is that you do not mix correct codes with made up codes. Certainly not with codes that are squatting other codes. It is also an infraction on the code of use for the standard. The standard allows for made up codes. Your notion that any code is better then no code is sadly and completely wrong. Thanks, GerardM 00:26, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

I am not defending the als code. I am saying that the gsw code is not a suitable alternative; the gsw code doesn't even stand for Alemannic as a whole because it excludes Swabian and other variants. I've even seen a crazy proposal once that suggested that the Alemannic Wikipedia should be split up along those lines to match the non-factual classification of the Ethnologue. --Clemens 00:51, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

May I point to the no: wiki which is Bokmål (nb:) only and not Nynorsk (nn:); while its language code means that both language forms should be allowed. Is it right that the language commitee do not wish to take a stance on this particular matter, because of the age of the language code assignment? There is currently a vote going on the Bokmål wikipedia, and unsurprisingly, it's going the wrong way. How this is something that should be voted over is beyond me.

I made a more thorough post at the Wikimedia Forum --Harald Khan Ճ 15:56, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] sync'ing and existing/new language tags

Quoting from the closed discussion on Akan/Twi above:

There is no precedent against macrolanguage tags if they are applicable, but new wikis are synchronized with existing wikis. Even if the existing wikis use an incorrect tag, new wikis will be created using the same tag to keep them in synch. —{admin} Pathoschild 19:12:16, 02 September 2008 (UTC)

I do not quite understand that, can you explain? Imho, an existing wiki cannot created be a 2nd time, and a closed wiki could be reopened under any name without a need to be synced (with what?) Thank you. --Purodha Blissenbach 10:09, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

The subdomain used for a language is the same for all its wikis. If an Example Wikipedia were created at ex.wikipedia.org, the Example Wikisource would be created at ex.wikisource.org even if ex was not the correct code. —Pathoschild 17:49:39, 06 January 2009 (UTC)

Aah, now I got it. Sync'ing has nothing to do with content. Thank you. --Purodha Blissenbach 18:09, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Status of Wikipedia Aceh

How is the status for Wikipedia Aceh now? Thanx. Si Gam Acèh 04:45, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

One last message is needed to complete the requirement for localising the "most used" messages. GerardM 08:15, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Requests ready for approval

There are two requests ready for approval the Western Panjabi wikipedia and the Bakhtiari wikipedia. They have done their localisation and they have been active (3 editors per month with more than 10 edits) for more than 3 months.--ZaDiak 21:17, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

The Bakthiari proposal is not ready. The articles are very much two three lines for an article. We need more substantial articles before we can make any conclusions that are more positive. Thanks, GerardM 22:53, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit] So-called "Pecheneg" language in the incubator

Hi! I have found a very strange project being maintained in the incubator: so-called "pecheneg language". It is a great problem occured. We just have another one "siberian" project but by Turkish now. The real Pecheneg language had been extincted 8-9 centuries ago! But here we can see both the project and the near-nonsence page in English Wiki with 12 speakers and almost 99% of turkish words :). I think it should be closed. Sura 22:23, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

People can do in the Incubator whatever they like. This does not mean that they have requested a project and it does not mean that they are likely to get their request approved. The language committee only looks at things when it is put in front of them. Thanks, GerardM 07:56, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

I think, as long as there's no official request the language committee is not involved. But of course the Incubator project can decide to stop the test project if it cannot possibly lead anywhere. They could for example send them to Wikia. --::Slomox:: >< 16:28, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

So anyone could think out any artificial language by himself and start a project in the incubator? Sura 23:39, 15 February 2009 (UTC)

It's a wiki. So yes. Incubator is a test project. Tests can fail or can be doomed to fail right from the start. Pecheneg Wikipedia will never be an official Wikimedia project under current rules and it's highly unlikely, that the rules will ever change in favor of it. So we should tell this to the people behind the test project. Tell them to create a Wikia project. It's in their own interest to find a safe hosting place. --::Slomox:: >< 08:19, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

@Sura: no, you can only start a project in Incubator if there's a valid ISO 639 code, which is the case for Pecheneg (we moved the whole test to match with ISO 639). I once explained them they won't get a Wikimedia project, but they continue (I don't know the details anymore..). Test projects without a valid ISO 639 code have priority to be deleted. SPQRobin ^(inc!) 18:57, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

The same issue for Dalmatian [3] [4] Crazymadlover

[edit] Request for update for Mirandese - MWL

I wanted to know what are the formal steps to approve the Mirandese Wikipedia. We have translated 100 essentials articles (some have been reviewed by me or by Amadeu Ferreira, one expert from Mirandese) and there are already more articles. Also, "Most Used Messages" have been localized. Thank you Cecílio 01:45, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia Mirandese

• Please, update the page of unoficial analysis of the Mirandese Wikipedia [5]. Thank you. Cecílio 04:20, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Wiktionary Mirandese

• Please, update the page of unoficial analysis of the Mirandese Wiktionary [6]. Thank you. Cecílio 04:20, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Requesting Middle English

I want to request for a Wikipedia for Middle English. On the Surface many might think Middle English is the same as Modern English, but it is quite different. Especially Non-Chaucer forms (since it was his dialect that the standard was based) show an incredible difference. I think this would be another interesting Wiki. --71.225.96.57 21:58, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

You probably want to visit incubator: and start a project, then. 207.145.133.34 23:10, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Simple english

Hi,

Several users raised the question of the existence of simple english wikipedia. Does it fall within the remit of this committee?

Ghaag 07:05, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

No, the committee is only responsible for managing requests for new wikis. —Pathoschild 10:43:12, 05 March 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Request for update Korean Wikiversity

• Can you please update Language committee/Status/wv/ko?Yknok29 05:14, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

At the moment the MediaWiki messages are done. The extensions are not yet done. I can state this on the page however the requirement of full localisation is at the moment of assessment. Therefore I can but it does not take away the need to maintain the localisation for the MediaWiki messages. Thanks, GerardM 07:58, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Archives

There are still no full archives for January and February. --Partheus 21:45, 12 March 2009 (UTC)