Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Chinese languages

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See Proposal for Sinitic linguistic policy.

Several Chinese language Wikipedias[edit]

submitted verification final decision
This proposal has been closed as part of a reform of the request process.
This request has not necessarily been rejected, and new requests are welcome. This decision was taken by the language committee in accordance with the Language proposal policy.

The closing committee member provided the following comment:

This discussion was created before the implementation of the Language proposal policy, and it is incompatible with the policy. Please open a new proposal in the format this page has been converted to (see the instructions). Do not copy discussion wholesale, although you are free to link to it or summarise it (feel free to copy your own comments over). —{admin} Pathoschild 19:50, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
Proposal summary
Please read the handbook for requesters for help using this template correctly.

Wu simplified[edit]

  • nishishei
  • Pangguanzhe (note: I am in favor of the Hanzi-and-Latinized split editions. Nishishei, ZanheewoABC and Qinglai should be able to test their Latinization schemes here. I oppose making a Traditional Hanzi edition separate from the Simplified edition for the obvious reason that Simplified is almost universal among Wu speakers. And I am infavor of allowing the redirecting of Traditional Hanzi titles)
  • wtzdj
  • xryy
  • alaya
  • daic
  • Node ue
  • Alcimarron (There are also major Wu languages that are mutually unintelligible with Shanghainese--let Shanghainese blaze a trail on Wiki first.)
  • Felix Wan
  • Kaihsu
  • Pektiong
  • A-giâu (conditionally support if native & second-language speakers support it)
  • zh:User:MilchFlasche (No matter which kind of script, just let people write what they need!)
  • in favour of Hakka
  • Kaihsu
  • Chun-hian

Cantonese[edit]

Cantonese traditional
  • Pangguanzhe(note: I am in favor of the Hanzi-and-Latinized split editions. And I will be busying myself writing mainly Penkyamp articles in order to better codify standard Cantonese as a written language. I oppose making a Simplified Hanzi edition separate from the Traditional edition, for the obvious reason that Traditional Hanzi is the universal script for almost all Cantonese speakers. And I am infavor of allowing the redirecting of Simplified Hanzi titles
  • Node ue
  • Felix Wan
  • Kaihsu
  • zh:User:Hon(I am in favor of a Latinized Cantonese wikipedia, which use Penkyamp as it's standard writing system.)
  • Pektiong
  • Desmond
  • A-giâu (conditionally support if native & second-language speakers support it)
  • zh:User:MilchFlasche (No matter which kind of script, just let people write what they need!)
  • Notes/comments:
    • Should perhaps be mixed or detailed with "simplified script"/"traditional script" select (-Hans and -Hant tag).
      • zh-cn and zh-tw may be rename as "zh-Hans" and "zh-Hant". (31 jan 2005)
    • Why add more chineses wikipedia tough zh-cn and zh-tw distinction now exist and work ? (10 Aug 2004)
      • This is like asking why add more German-dialect languages like Bavarian, Luxembourgish, Alsatian, Bavarian or Low Saxon. We already have German and isn't that close enough?
        • Good comparison. It differ by the fact that theoreticaly zh is for all chinese languages (de is only for german). (15 jan 2005)
      • Chinese is a family of many languages that are related to each other. Cantonese is not intelligible for Mandarin speakers, unlike the case between Spanish and Italian speakers. What make Chinese looks to be a single language is that Chinese languages are written in the same set of ideograms, although some characters can only be found in one or several language. (since the fall of China mainland into the Commies are simplified set of characters is introduced and used. Traditional Chinese characters are still used in Hong Kong (official), Macau (official), part of China still ruled by the Republic of China, i.e. Taiwan, the former government that rule over entire China, and numerous Chinese communities in Europe, Australia and North America.)
        • Commie yourself.
          • Oppose. Can #REDIRECT zh.--Shizhao 15:43, 22 Oct 2004 (UTC)
            • You oppose to 'Commie yourself' insult ????
              • 'commies' is a non-neutral term.
    • Let me explain the situation. Considering Chinese as a single language is limited to linguists from PRC. In my opinion, that is politically motivated. The rest of the world consider Chinese as a collection of related languages, using the same criteria as in classifying the languages for the rest of the world: mutual intelligibility. Please notice that zh-cn and zh-tw are mutually intelligible languages. The difference is comparable to BrE and AmE. They are only written in different scripts. The zh wikipedia has done a very great job in auto translation between the scripts. Also zh-hk, zh-sg, etc. refer to the local variations of the same language: Vernacular Chinese, based on Standard Mandarin. It is OK to group zh-cn, zh-tw, zh-hk, zh-sg into zh because that is the literary standard of the day.

      However, zh-wuu and zh-yue are like zh-min-nan. All of them are not mutually intelligible to the zh group and among themselves. Each of them have their own literary tradition, although they are not as official as zh. The whole Bible was translated into those three languages in early 20th century. Yes, later zh won government support, but we should not deny the existence of those languages. We already have many Wikipedias in languages with much less speakers, even constructed, experimental ones. We already have policies to remove inactive Wikipedias. If there are enough users to support, let them start.
    • I want to see the Chinese edition having 3 independent editing groups, i.e. having 3 versions (zh-cn, zh-tw, zh-hk) editors: the editors from PRC are only being allowed to edit zh-cn edition, the editors from ROC are only being allowed to edit zh-tw edition, and the editors from Hong Kong and Macau only being allowed to edit zh-hk edition. Then the zh-min-nan edition of Wikipedia can be closed, and people from Hong Kong and Macau would likely to stop to ask for a zh-yue-Hant edition. The only thing Wikipedia has to do is linking the explanations of one term from one edition with the same term in other two editions.
      • No no no, please don't try to separate Wikipediae by nationalities. Different Wikipediae should be established by languages, not by countries. Zh can be edited by users from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, etc; zh-yue-x, zh-min-nan, zh-wuu-x, zh-hakka or everything else should also not be confined in different countries. Please stop the idea that language division is simply national separatism. Proposing zh-min-nan, zh-yue, zh-wuu etc. has nothing to do with which country/region we belong to. I'm from Taiwan, and I will still stick to zh, since Mandarin is by far my first language and mainly my thinking language; but I also support for the request for other Sinitic languages.
        • And why don't people sign their names here? -- zh:user:MilchFlasche08:11, 29 Jan 2005 (UTC)
        • I sign here! I'm from Taiwan ,too! But I still willing to see a zh-tw wikipedia with Taiwan culture feature. The grammar of Chinese is the same. But the phrase used in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan is not the same. So, 3 Chinese editions may be a good idea. zh:user:twyoda 15:14,22 Jun 2005
  • It is outrageous that Spanish "languages" like Murcian, Asturian, Catalan, Mirandese, Galician, and Aragonese have their own Wikipedias even though anyone who knows Standard Spanish can fully understand their written languages except for a couple of local words, yet Chinese languages like Wu, Cantonese, and Min Nan are relegated to dialect status, subordinate to a single Chinese wikipedia!