Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Finnish Sign Language

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Finnish Sign Language 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 fse (SILGlottolog) A valid ISO 639-1 or 639-3 language code, like "fr", "de", "nso", ...
Language name Finnish Sign Language name in English
Language name Suomalainen viittomakieli 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 Q33225 - 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 no indication Is the language written from left to right (LTR) or from right to left (RTL)?
Links Finnish Sign Language in the Finnish Wikipedia , The Finnish Association of the Deaf (FAD) 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 Europe/Helsinki "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]

The Finnish Sign Language is the first language of about 5000 people. The Finnish Sign Language is mentioned in the Finnish Constitution and this way it is recognized by the state as a natural language. In Finland speakers of the Finnish Sign Language hold a right to use it as their mother tongue.

The Finnish Sign Language community is also interested in to work with the Americal Sign Language community, which recently have made a request of Wikipedia in an American Sign Language.

Discussion[edit]

Arguments in favour[edit]

Arguments against[edit]

  • Oppose Oppose Finnish sign language is not a written language per se. Anyone who knows Finnish Sign Language is much more likely to speak Finnish anyways, so their efforts would be much better concentrated there. Monobi (talk) 21:50, 30 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    • Sign languages are written languages. The script is called SignWriting. There is an extension for MediaWiki called the SignWriting MediaWiki Plugin that has an alpha release. SignWriting will be added to Unicode; it's only a matter of time. There are several ways to encode SignWriting into Unicode. I prefer the plane 4 solution which you can see in action with this "Hello world" page. Regards, Steve 01:52, 17 December 2008
    • With your argument we could as well close the Finnish Wikipedia (150 000 articles), too. People who know Finnish also speak most likely English too, so their effort would be "much better" concentrated in there? The point of having Wikipedia in Sign Languages is a matter of having the equal opportunity to operate and study in your native language. --Teemul 22:25, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
      • Okay, but there's still a serious question: does Finnish Sign Language have a written form? If not, do you have a written form in mind, and is it appropriate to create a written form for Wikipedia, or should we wait until it's actually in use in the community first?--Prosfilaes 00:38, 15 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Please be aware, that there is no rule, that Wikipedia must be written down. They could video-tape their signing and publish videos on their Wikipedia instead of written articles. That would be uncommon and would make it hard, to edit articles wiki-like, but it is not illegitimate.
But of course I too want to know, whether there is a written form of Finnish sign, whether it is displayable in Unicode and whether it is well-known in the Finnish sign community. (Cause writing is easier than video-taping) --::Slomox:: >< 16:41, 28 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
There may be no written rule that Wikipedia must be written down. I find the use of that fact as a justification to go charging ahead like a bull in a china shop disturbing. 100% of existing Wikipedias are in writing, and the costs of using a video format are huge, in bandwidth, in limited accessibility, in editability. A video-only Wikipedia should accept that it's breaking a de facto rule that's stronger than many de jure rules.--Prosfilaes 22:52, 28 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Even if the Finnish sign Wikipedia will be extremely popular among the 5000 Finnish signers, that won't mean any bandwidth threat for Wikimedia, I guess. But I too favor a written one. --::Slomox:: >< 02:03, 29 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

WHY? Using effort to something as trivial as this?. Needing sign language to read?. There is better ways to use money than this.

Other discussion[edit]