Tell us about Catalan Wikipedia

This page belongs to the project Tell us about your Wikipedia.

Catalan Wikipedia

• Catalan (Català) – ca

Questionaire

Contributors

• Wikimedia Statistics can be difficult to interpret. What is your impression, how many steady contributors do you have?

More or less 90 contributors with at least 100 edits per month.

• Are your contributors mostly native speakers?

Yes.

• Where do your contributors live (regions/country)?

Mostly Catalonia, Valencian Country and Balearic Islands. Also from other parts of the Catalan countries and abroad.

• How common is it that your contributors meet in real life?

Up to now, once per year.

Other Wikipedias

• Do you have special contacts with another Wikipedias (maybe in related languages)?

Many editors also work in other language editions, especially the Spanish, English and Occitan ones.

• Do you translate a lot from other Wikipedias? Which ones?

Many missing articles are translated but we create a significant part of new content. The wikipedias from which we translate the most are Spanish, English, French and German ones, in this order.

Organization and support

• Is there a Wikimedia chapter in your country? How does your language relate to it?

In Italy and France, yes. In Spain and Andorra, no. There is not any support to our language at any chapter.

• Are there work groups in other organizations about Wikipedia?

No.

Your Wikipedia and the linguistic community

• Is there a language institution for your language, like an Academy, or a club of people interested in your language? Do you have contact with them?

There exists the Institut d'Estudis Catalans and the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua. We have had contact with none.

• Who (else) supports you?

The Generalitat de Catalunya has helped promote this language edition a bit with a programme to bring Wikipedia to the schools.

• How looks your public outreach for your edition? Do you have fliers, give lectures, trainings etc.?

No, we don't.

• Do you get feedback from readers?

We have a guest book where readers leave suggestions or comments. We are also very active in articles' comments.

• What other encyclopedias exist in your language?

The main one is the Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana, with an online edition.

Content

• Does your edition concentrates on certain topics, like your region and language, or Latin Wikipedia on Roman history and Christianity?

Obviously, this edition has a much higher proportion of Catalan Countries-related topics than any other edition, but a significant part of the Featured Articles consists in Art, Military History and Zoology articles. We have many unique articles from Classical Era compared with other Wikipedias, especially biographies.

• Did your edition enjoy text donations, for example from older encyclopedias?

No.

Language

• Is there a generally accepted norm about your language (spelling, dictionary, pronunciation)?

Yes. The IEC and the AVL decide the standards for each variety of Catalan.

• How do you deal with different spellings, dialects etc. (like B.E. lift and A.E. elevator)?

In articles which deal with subjects on some region, we favour the use of that region's dialect as long as the language does not deviate too much from the standard. In articles which do not deal with any particular region, the choice of the first editor is usually kept, unless it may be too obscure for those unfamiliar with the dialect.