Tell us about Marathi Wikipedia

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

Name of the Wikipedia

• (Marathi) – mr

Questionnaire

Contributors

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

Around ten

• Are your contributors mostly native speakers?

Yes, most of them are native speakers.

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

Maharashtra Region in India and Good no may be in USA

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

Not very often. There have been some face-to-face meetings and a few contributor conferences. Usualy we are intouch through yahoo email group,mr-wiki and some users take lead in convening online discussions on few Marathi Language Webpages.

Other Wikipedias

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

Yes through India specific mailing list meant for prposed chapter of Wikimedia India.There is a mailing list at WikimediaIndia-l for discussion of this chapter, and of the Indian language Wikimedia projects in general.

We share script almost as is is with Hindi and Nepali wikipedia.

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

Most of the translations happen from en Wikipedia to Marathi.A little bit of effort happens from Marathi to Hindi and Hindi to Marathi translations but translation activity is still less than its real potencial

Organization and support

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

Wikimedia India is still in proposed stage.Still initiative on real life activity is less with Marathi Language Wikipedians

• Are there work groups in other organizations about Wikipedia?

Awareness in college level is percoalating fast.But no workgroups are known as of the day.Few indivisuals took initiative in informing elder generation about Wikipedia.

Powerpoint presentations are available for future promotion activity.

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?

State Institute for Development of Marathi is a Government of Maharashtra Body for promotion of Marathi Language, Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad is autonomus apex body of all literary aspects of Marathi Language and its openion is considered positively in all Govt. and Non govt circles besides this institution takes lead in anual literary fuction called 'Sahity Sammelan'; Marathi Abhyas Parishad] is another NGO which leads promotion of Marathi Language.

But Marathi Language Wikipedians do not have any formal or imformal contact with them.

• Who (else) supports you?

No formal or imformal support as of the day.

• What does the public outreach for your edition look like? Do you have flyers, give lectures, trainings etc.?

Under media communication projectwe have made various resources available online at one place.While two majior Marathi news papers 'Maharashtra Times' and 'Loksatta' have taken note of Marathi Language Wikipedia but still Marathi Language Wikipedia is not taken note by Marathi language press and media.

• Do you get feedback from readers?

Yes ,we get feed back from readers, besides time and again we conduct various polls on Marathi Language wikipedia as well as imformal online yahoo group.

• What other encyclopedias exist in your language?

There is some Govt sponsored activity on this, but does not have easy access.

Content

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

There are some concerted initiatives underway related to cricket players, date/year articles, football(soccer) and Indian Parliament. Other than that, not much

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

None.Wikipedia Books version does have a minor percentage of text donation.

Language

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

Yes, The contemporary grammatical rules described by Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad and endorsed by the Government of Maharashtra are supposed to take precedence in standard written Marathi. Traditions of Marathi Linguistics and above mentioned rules give special status to 'Tatsam' (Without Change) words adapted from the Sanskrit language. This special status expects the rules for 'Tatsam' words be followed as of Sanskrit grammar. While this supports Marathi Language with a larger treasure of Sanskrit words to cope with demands of new technical words whenever needed; maintains influence over Marathi.

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

Usualy standard Marathi language from town called Pune is used as lingua franqa and for written Marathi Language and Marathi language people are quite sensitive and conservative about the way spellings are written.Good no of Marathi Wikipedians spend time on spell check besides special care is taken whether a page is name is spelt correctly. Bots have been written and operated specificallly to correct spellings in the most obvious cases.

See also

• Tell us about your Wikipedia

Links

• Main/Front page of your Wikipedia: http://mr.wikipedia.org
• Marathi Wikipedia Interlanguage embassy]