Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Pa-prostu

Pa-prostu Wikipedia

submitted	verification	final decision

	This proposal has been rejected. This decision was taken by the language committee in accordance with the Language proposal policy based on the discussion on this page. The closing committee member provided the following comment: Does not have an ISO 639 code. Jon Harald Søby 19:35, 12 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Proposal summary
Language details: Pa-prostu (Pa-prostu, bel ISO 639-2) Editing community: {{{community}}} List your user name if you're interested in editing the wiki. Add "N" next to your name if you are a native speaker of this language. Relevant pages: development wiki project External links: Padlaska Cyberwioska - see the chapter "Nasza mowa"
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The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.

Pa-prostu is an independent East Slavic variety closely related to the Belarusian language. It is used by a community of approx. 200000 people in eastern Poland (Podlasie Voivodship). As the speakers of Pa-prostu have almost no contact with the standard Belarusian, they don't have sufficient knowledge of neither the cyrylic alphabet nor the standard Belarusian language itself as it is used in Belarus to be able to use the Belarusian Wikipedia or the Belarusian (Taraskievica) Wikipedia. Althoug there is no schools where Pa-prostu would be taught, it remains the language of informal contacts on a large part of the territory of Podlasie Voivodship. There is also a kind of a local interdialectal standard that comprises a set of systemic features that differenciates Pa-prostu from standard Belarusian. First of all, if written, the Pa-prostu language uses exclusively a specyfic variant of the latin alphabet.

In contrast with the Belarusian-speaking orthodox community in southern Podlasie Voivodship, where there are many Belarusian schools and the standard Belarusian language is widely known and used, among the Pa-prostu speakers, which are mostly catholics, the local variant starts not to be transmitted to the youngest generation. Creating a Wikipedia in Pa-prostu would not only enable its speakers to acces to knowledge in their native language, but would also be a major factor increasing the prestige of the language and helping it not to perish in a few generations time.

Arguments in favour

Arguments against

Other discussion

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.