Tell us about Latgalian Wikipedia

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

Latgaļu Vikipedeja (Latgalian Wikipedia)[edit]

Wikimedia Statistics can be difficult to interpret. What is your impression, how many steady contributors do you have?
- Some 4-5 contributors and one native bot. But we don't have any exact everyday contributor. --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Are your contributors mostly native speakers?
- No, we are multilingual community. There are some native Latgalian speakers and Latvians, who use Latgalian as a second language (amd some of them speaks Lithuanian daily), than there are Latvian speaking users, who have just learned Latgalian. And there are Russian-Latvian speakers from native region, using Latgalian as a third language (as a regional identifier). --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Where do your contributors live (regions/country)?
- In native region Latgale, in Riga, the capital of Latvia or in capital of Lithuania, Vilnius. Maybe in other cities of Latvia (out of Latgale). --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
How common is it that your contributors meet in real life?
- It's not common. I have met one of them and another one seen in some cultural events. But it's common to talk per skype about our Wikipedia to make things faster. On one hand, we're small language community, so we have to be in touch, but on the other hand It's just an internet project and I let it be as a virtual society. --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have special contacts with other Wikipedias (maybe in related languages)?
- Yes, we have a good contact with Latvian Wikipedia (our closest language), some of our members outgrew from this Wikipedia or just comes for a help. Nice friendship with Samogitian. Some of our members also work in Russian Wikipedia. --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Do you translate a lot from other Wikipedias? Which ones?
- Yes, we do. Mostly from Latvian and English, but also from Lithuanian, Russian, sometimes German. --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a Wikimedia chapter in your country? How does your language relate to it?
- No, even nothing related. --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Are there work groups in other organizations about Wikipedia?
- Not yet, but maybe it could be possible. --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

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?
- Yes, there is an orthography committee under The Latvian State Language Center and some institutions under main Universities in our country. We don't have any contact with them. Our language greatest dictionaries author is one of our contributors. --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Who (else) supports you?
- We can use an informative support from main Latgalian media - portal lakuga.lv --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
What does the public outreach for your edition look like? Do you have flyers, give lectures, training etc.?
- We haven't done much yet, as we are just at the beginning. Mostly people look it as an interesting fact and reads something for "how this language looks like". It's related with low social status of our language. --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Do you get feedback from readers?
- Sometimes, mostly in other internet portals. Both positive and with big question marks. --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
What other encyclopedias exist in your language?
- We have a lot of literature from 18th century and also some books in Latvian about our culture, region. But there is no encyclopedia about all kind of topics, only specific ones - about religion, history of literature, botanics etc. So Wikipedia is an important media in Latgalian language. --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Does your edition concentrate on certain topics, like your region and language, or Latin Wikipedia on Roman history and Christianity?
- Every user can choose his favorite topic, but non-officially we concentrate on our region (geography, culture, religion). It makes motivation to use this encyclopedia, as great part of speakers use Latgalian as a second or home language. So they can read about global topics in any other language. --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Did your edition enjoy text donations, for example from older encyclopedias?
- No. --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a generally accepted norm about your language (spelling, dictionary, pronunciation)?
- Yes, the final orthographic rules were accepted in year 2007. There have been also older versions. But there is no rules for speech. The level of standard language knowledge is very poor and only few people use this language for writing. --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
How do you deal with different spellings, dialects etc. (like B.E. lift and A.E. elevator)?
- We are using standard Latgalian, which is based on central dialect (one of three). It's accepted by linguists. But it's rarely accepted by speakers. In every village there is an own variety of speech, which makes hard to improve the use of standard language. People try to be patriotic of their dialect, but actually there is nothing to deal with dialect, but again with social level of this language. --Roalds 07:49, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]