User:Melancholie

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[edit] Support of a Bavarian language Wikipedia

I support the creation of a Bavarian-Austrian Wikipedia (strongly ;-)! There are no disadvantages that other language Wikipedias would not have! Particularly I think, we should not talk about a dialect, but about a "mother tongue" that is written very well (there are many poems, essays, etc.)! And of course there is some kind of Bavarian writing system, though not unified; but this is not necessary and not desirable as long as common rules are used! The other "dialect" Wikipedias are doing well in this respect!

Those who do not speak German cannot know, how different a German "dialect" is from Standard German. This difference is simply not at all comparable with the difference of a English dialect to "Standard English" (to be honest: there is no "Standard English", so there are no "English dialects", just language habits and accents!). Furthermore it seems like many of the Bavarian opponents simply do not know how different their "mother tongue" is from High German! Maybe they are even indulging High German!? There already are some "dialect Wikipedias" which already have proven that this concept can work! There are http://als.wikipedia.org/ and http://fy.wikipedia.org/ and http://li.wikipedia.org/ and http://lb.wikipedia.org/ and http://nds.wikipedia.org/ and http://scn.wikipedia.org/ and some others! And do they replace the German Wikipedia? Or do they harm any other Wikipedias? No, they just offer articles in the mother tongue of several thousands and mostly of several million people. It is true: in Germany/Europe dialects are endangered because of propaganda against those dialects and its speakers: Germans are "brainwashed" by TV and other influences with subversive thoughts like 'your mother tongue is "out of fashion"; "of minor value"; "inoperative", etc.' to only use High German, or even Germish in a monopoly way. This is why Low Saxon is an almost extinct language (it is an official language!). Almost everyone thinks he has to speak German, and nowadays in a inflationary manner Germish, to be accepted. And thus the regional cultures in Germany are giving way to a Germ-ish "(un-)culture". By having a free Bavarian encyclopedia (and there will be many contributers in future if it is hosted by Wikimedia, due to the freedom, popularity, internationality, notability, dominance and attention due to InterWiki-links only Wikimedia can offer), the usability of the Bavarian language can be shown and proved once more (and this time in a significant and extensive way)! Maybe we even can change minds (from ignorance towards a linguistical and cultural acceptance of those dialects). And why should we take part in preventing Bavarian dialects to be spoken and written? The other "dialect" Wikipedias are pretty active ones, partly with more articles than the Hindi and many many other Wikipedias; see Meta. There will be many people willing to contibute to a Wikipedia of their real mother tongue.

And are some of you really afraid of a decreased attention towards the German Wikipedia? The very much worse problem for the German Wikipedia is, that there are 500 up to 800 articles being deleted every day! There are many good ones, capable of development! But they, and thus the work of the author(s), are just deleted (with make-believe arguments like "irrelevant" or "advertising" while being an article like others)! There are many word definitions that just would have to be copied/moved to the German Wiktionary. But NO: Those "non-encyclopaedic" articles are just deleted as well (and I know what I am saying: almost nobody is creating Wiktionary entries with mentioning the revision and author history of the Wikipedia article! So, either no de.wp sysop/active_user obeys the GNU-FDL, or no one of those cares of the work of others ->so they are just deleted. And it is getting worse: across the board those deleted articles are titled as "Müll" (rubbish) by some users; see de:Wikipedia:Kurier! And how can it be, that only very few (I do not mention names!) are deleting those articles? Do they really have a look on the pro and con arguments at the deletion discussion? Do they count the pros and cons and sum up? I think those users do not! As long as the work of many many contributers is named "rubbishy" and thus is being deleted, a dialect Wikipedia is the very least problem of the German Wikipedia!

Furthermore we are not talking about one single, very local dialect! We are talking about the whole Bavarian dialect group! So, be cautious saying "it's only a dialect"! It's more: It is the actual mother tongue of 17 million people, rich of variants (like every free, adorable and lovable language should be!)!

My mother tongue is Alemannic, but I am able to understand all Bavarian dialects (in spoken and written form), so why should any Bavarian have a problem doing so? For those who now want to say "if you can understand Bavarian, it's a proof that Bavarian is pretty similar to High German": No! I can understand all Bavarian dialect because I live in Bavaria, but I am not at all able to speak or write Bavarian correctly! It is just too different from High German and even from Alemannic!

The Alemannic Wikipedia for example has been started as a Alsatian Wikipedia only (knowing that this is just a very regional dialect); see [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [and furthers]. And by incorporating the whole alemannic dialect group, the Alemannic Wikipedia is going to reach 1.000 articles (hopefully at the end of this year)! And according to the site statistics the articles are edited and read pretty often! So, where is the problem?

Quotation from en:Wikipedia: "Its purpose is to create and distribute a free, reliable encyclopedia in as many languages as possible". The important words are "as many" and "as possible"! By forbidding Bavarians to have their own mother tongue Wikipedia (and they want one, like you can see), you even would encourage the Bavarian language to be seen as not worth for modern usage and thus for further existence. Such a decision (at a project that stands for freedom, plurality, diversity and much more good and tolerant features) would be a huge coffin nail or even a death sentence for the totally underestimated Bavarian-Austrian language.

Summary: It would be a "dialect group"/"mother tongue" Wikipedia, worth of being supported! So, just create it, wait, and see! --- I hope you will excuse my emotional, pathetic wording; best regards, Melancholie


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