Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Badaga

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Badaga Wikipedia[edit]

submitted verification final decision

This language has been verified as eligible.
The language is eligible for a project, which means that the subdomain can be created once there is an active community and a localized interface, as described in the language proposal policy. You can discuss the creation of this language project on this page.

Once the criteria are met, the language committee can proceed with the approval and will verify the test project content with a reliable neutral source, such as a professor or expert.

If you think the criteria are met, but the project is still waiting for approval, feel free to notify the committee and ask them to consider its approval.

  • The community needs to develop an active test project; it must remain active until approval (automated statistics, recent changes). It is generally considered active if the analysis lists at least three active, not-grayed-out editors listed in the sections for the previous few months.
  • The community needs to complete required MediaWiki interface translations in that language (about localization, translatewiki, check completion).
  • The community needs to discuss and complete the settings table below:
What Value Example / Explanation
Proposal
Language code bfq (SILGlottolog) A valid ISO 639-1 or 639-3 language code, like "fr", "de", "nso", ...
Language name Badaga Language name in English
Language name படகா Language name in your language. This will appear in the language list on Special:Preferences, in the interwiki sidebar on other wikis, ...
Language Wikidata item Q33205 - item has currently the following values:
Item about the language at Wikidata. It would normally include the Wikimedia language code, name of the language, etc. Please complete at Wikidata if needed.
Directionality LTR Is the language written from left to right (LTR) or from right to left (RTL)?
Links International Badaga association, Badaga Grammar by Prof.Paul Hockings, Badaga Dictionary by Prof.Paul Hockings Links to previous requests, or references to external websites or documents.

Settings
Project name "Wikipedia" in your language
Project namespace usually the same as the project name
Project talk namespace "Wikipedia talk" (the discussion namespace of the project namespace)
Enable uploads no Default is "no". Preferably, files should be uploaded to Commons.
If you want, you can enable local file uploading, either by any user ("yes") or by administrators only ("admin").
Notes: (1) This setting can be changed afterwards. The setting can only be "yes" or "admin" at approval if the test creates an Exemption Doctrine Policy (EDP) first. (2) Files on Commons can be used on all Wikis. (3) Uploading fair-use images is not allowed on Commons (more info). (4) Localisation to your language may be insufficient on Commons.
Optional settings
Project logo This needs to be an SVG image (instructions for logo creation).
Default project timezone Continent/City "Continent/City", e.g. "Europe/Brussels" or "America/Mexico City" (see list of valid timezones)
Additional namespaces For example, a Wikisource would need "Page", "Page talk", "Index", "Index talk", "Author", "Author talk".
Additional settings Anything else that should be set
submit Phabricator task. It will include everything automatically, except additional namespaces/settings. After creating the task, add a link to the comment.

Proposal[edit]

  • Badaga is spoken by approximately 300,000 people [1]
  • Locations spoken: Nilgiri Hills, South India.
  • Badaga language has a well defined Grammar and Dictionary and has wide usage, Badaga Grammar by Prof.Paul Hockings, Badaga Dictionaryby Prof.Paul Hockings
  • Badaga has published literatures mostly by local people and earlier period it was by Evangelical ministries . In 1852, Gospel of St.Luke, by Gerage James CasaMajor. [Source: Counsel from the ancients: a study of Badaga proverbs, prayers, omens, and ...

By Paul Hockings, page 8.]

  • Other books published is Anga kartak ibba Ye:su Kristana Olleya suddiya pustaka, Luka bareddadu in 1890 [Source: Arthur Coke Burnell, Mangalore: Basel Mission press, 10pp.]
  • Short bible stories in Badaga by Mangalore: Basel Mission press, and many other literature are in this language.

Discussion[edit]

Arguments in favour[edit]

  • Support Support 'Badaga language is spoken by around 300,000 people in South India, though it often use Tamil script and one of the living language of Tamil Nadu. Bibles are translated into Badaga language, and Radio programs are broadcasted in Badaga language[2]. It also has separate dictionary and many books are written in Badaga language. Therefore this language deserves a wikipedia domain. --Jai Kumara Yesappa 18:34, 15 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Badaga language has a well defined Grammar and Dictionary and has wide usage, Badaga Grammar by Prof.Paul Hockings, Badaga Dictionary by Prof.Paul Hockings
  • Support Strongly Support Badaga Language is spoken by nearly 300,000 people and Badaga are majority in Niligiri district of Tamil Nadu and It has a private Cable television. So Badaga needed to be placed in Wikipedia. It has a due place. --Wijayan 17:52, 16 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support Strong Support: Native speakers of Badaga have the competency and willingness to contribute to this project in the long-term. Hence the Badaga language deserves to be given the opportunity and priviledge to have its own language edition of Wikipedia along with the existing Dravidian languages such as Tamil, Kannada, and so on. --Jose77 06:51, 19 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support Strong Support: Native speakers of the Badaga language, just like the Montenegrins (check out also that request), should have the democratic and liberal freedom and rights to express their own beliefs and agenda. CRNOGORSKI PATRIOTA
  • Support very srongly support : Being a Native speaker of Badaga, I have been advocating the firm belief of Badagas that this is an unique and very old language and not a derivative of Kannada/Tamil as some insist. Of late, some attempts are being made to create a script. One of the original researchers of this language and French linguistic scholar from LACITO, a scientific research centre in Paris, Christiane Pilot-Raichoor in her interview to 'Times of India' issue dated 04-12-2013 says " The Badaga language, widely believed to be a dialect of Kannada, was the language of communication of ancient South Dravidians and shares similarities with the local Alu Kurumba tongue. Today, it is recognized as a separate language". Pilot-Raichoor, who has been working on the linguistic heritage of the Badaga language for the past two decades adds that there are too many important differences in the phonology and the grammar, differences in gender system, case system, verb classes, to claim a genetic relationship between Kannada and Badaga languages. --Wing Commander Bellie Jayaprakash (N) badaga.co A Badaga-English Dictionary ,by Christiane PILOT-RAICHOOR

Arguments against[edit]

Other discussion[edit]

Badaga, one of the South Dravidian Languages is spoken in the Nilgiri District of Tamilnadu, India and the present paper deals with the Badaga nouns with particular reference to gender, number and declension. Though it is considered by many, as one of the dialects of Kannada, there are many distinct features ( some are innovations and some others are due to the retentions of Old Kannada features) which may lead one to claim it as a separate language. The identity of certain pronouns both in Kodagu and Badaga is very striking though we may not be able to make any definitive statement regarding the dialect area whence Proto-Badaga migrated.

Badaga is a Southern Dravidian Language (Tamil-Kannada branch) spoken by approximately 250,000 people in the Nilgiris hills in Southern India. There are several dialects, only the most conservative having the complete set of contrasts illustrated here. Badaga has five vowels /i e a o u/ , all of which can be contrastively half and fully retroflexed. Half retroflexed vowels are indicated by the diacritic for rhotocity :[a~], fully retroflexed vowels with a subscript dot [a] Source: from the ‘Journal of the American Oriental Society, 92.2 (1972) page 276′


Picking up from what Prof.Paul Hockings has mentioned - rather the unicode used - in the example shown here from his book Counsel from the Ancients: Study of Badoga Proverbs, Prayers, Omens and Curses (page 54. Outline of Badaga Language - 2.1.2 Vowel Contrasts ) [3]

Badaga Grammar by Prof.Paul Hockings [4]

Badaga Dictionary by Prof.Paul Hockings [5]

Are we sure that 300,000 people is enough to make a new project? Usually, I would want to see at least 1,000,000 people or more speaking the language before I would even consider such a request, but that is just me. Razorflame 14:23, 31 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think there's any exact number of native speakers. According to Language_proposal_policy#Requisites. it basically just needs to be its own language, have an ISO 639 code,and have a number of native speakers. It doesn't give a minimum. Personally, I'd say that we should open any Wikipedia in a valid language if there is a community of people willing to work on it, and it would further Wikimedia's vision. But, anyway, this proposal has already been declared eligible by LangCom, it seems. PiRSquared17 (talk) 14:27, 31 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]