User:BirgitteSB/sandbox

Various policies and practices for starting new languages my comments in italics

Wikinews policy

All wikinews policy regarding new language subdomains is on meta.

Wikinews/Start a new edition

At least 5 people speaking the language have to express an interest in a language edition in order for it to be created. Of these, at least 3 have to be regulars in an existing Wikimedia project in that language -- regular means, at least 3 months of presence and at least 200 edits

Actual requests follow

New language pre-launch

These are recommended, but not mandatory procedures for preparations to follow before creating a new language edition of an existing Wikimedia project. The instructions are separated by project.

Despite the Wikimedia in that description this page is Wikinews specific and continues in detail

Wikisource tradtion

Generally wikisource.org has acted as an incubator to small languages so they can launch at reasonable stage of development. Recent practice of developers have launced new sub-domains with a minumum of interest (this was due to confusion)

Wikisource:Language domain requests

This page is for language domain requests. Please add your request here for a language subdomain, and/or your request for bureaucratship for a domain. Subdomains with no bureaucrat candidate will not be considered for the vote. Now that the New vote on language subdomains has concluded by allowing subdomains, the requests on this page have become official requests. Once you have added your request to this page, if there is consensus for it, please contact developers in order to have your subdomain created.

You can post a bug in http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/, or talk to them on IRC, channel #wikimedia-tech.

This page also has pre-launch instructions and the actual requests themselves

Rules for voting subpage

Votes

In order to start a new language edition, requests for that language must meet one of the following three criteria:

At least one experienced contributor at wikisource.org. An experienced contributor is someone who has been a logged-in user at wikisource.org for at least two months, with at least 250 Wikisource edits.
At least two experienced contributors at other Wikimedia projects in the specified language. In other words, two different users, each of whom has been logged-in for at least two months at a Wikimedia project (other than Wikisource) in the language that they have requested and made at least 250 edits in that project.
If there are insufficient experienced contributors, then a language request will be honored if it has at least three votes from active contributors in that language. An active contributor will be defined as someone who has been a logged-in user for one month at a Wikimedia project in the specified language, with at least 100 edits .

Any user requesting a language domain must create a user page at Wikisource, and provide within it a link to the Wikimedia project(s) in which s/he is active (otherwise the vote is invalid).

Bureaucrat

There must be a candidate for bureaucrat in each new language, so that sysops can be appointed when needed via local community decision. The candidate should be known as a responsible contributor to a Wikimedia project (preferably to wikisource.org when possible).

Other criteria

A viable, well-crafted "Main Page" must already exist at wikisource.org, ready to be copied to a language domain, before that domain is set up.
- Exceptions: Languages that are technically difficult to edit at wikisource.org (such as right-to-left languages). For such languages, the sample "Main Page" may be linked to, while temporarily hosted at the Wikipedia of that language.
Links to the new language edition of Wikisource must all be made immediately prior to the launching of that language:

Links from all of the sister-projects in that language
Links from the Wikisource Portal (Main Page)
A link from that language's local wikisource.org "Main Page" (a redirect?)

Opposition

General Wikisource policy for all recognized Wikimedia languages (in which other projects already exist) will be that language requests are honored when there is sufficient interest. There is normally no "oppose" vote (except in unusual circumstances such as the examples below, and other exceptional cases). This general policy is in accordance with the outstanding goal of Wikimedia to make its content readily available to people in the languages that they speak, read, and write.

Still, there are certain borderline cases where opposition to creation of a language domain may exist, such as extinct ancient languages, artificial languages (Klingon), etc. There are also closely related languages where it is not always clear when a separate wiki is needed. In all such borderline examples, a case-by-case decision should be made based on the circumstances, in consultation with the community, and in accordance with Wikimedia policy. Local "Main Pages" at wikisource.org may always be set up in any case, for any language.

There may, however, be opposition to specific votes for a language domain, or for bureaucrat status. The clearest example of this is in a case where the vote in favor of a language domain is by a user known as a troll, vandal, or a someone who violates Wikimedia policy in other projects.

Basically this is written up as policy but never officially adopted. There is no one speaking against so it may be a kind of common law.

Other Wikimedia projects

All other projects with subdomains seem to follow a common process on Meta

Requests for new languages

Note that this process has been standardised with the implementation of the Language proposal policy, so much of the content of this section is no longer true. :) —{admin} Pathoschild 21:23, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Procedure

There are several steps to follow if you would like to create a new language Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikisource, or Wikiquote. The Wikimedia Commons and Wikispecies are multi-lingual projects, meaning that there are no separate editions for individual languages. The Wikisource project has its own page to request a new language.

Peruse the complete list of Wikimedia projects. If the language you are looking for is not listed, look for very similar languages. Your proposed language must be sufficiently different, in its written form, from any other already-created language.
You must have an account here on the Meta wiki.
Copy and paste the template to the end of the discussion ongoing section.
Find the ISO 639-2 code or propose a code for your language (for future compatibility, be sure to consult the ISO 639-3 draft, which covers most of the world's languages).
Fill in all fields in the template.
If many potential contributors to your language's wiki are likely to speak a different language that already has a wiki, try and drum up support at a community discussion area on that wiki. Encourage anyone who wants to contribute to your proposed language to come to this page and add their support for your proposal.
If there is a consensus to create a wiki in your proposed language, send a message to the appropriate mailing list asking a developer to set up the wiki.
Be patient, as our developers are very busy volunteers. You may work on articles, interface files and help or instruction pages using an offline word processor so that you can quickly get your new wiki going. You may want to look at the List of articles all languages should have.

Actual requests are not only on this page but also on the following 8! pages:

Requests for new languages/Ancient
Requests for new languages/Non-natural
Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Chinese languages
- This has its own special policy propsal at Proposal for Sinitic linguistic policy which appears to be unresolved (?)
Requests for new languages/No supporters
Requests for new languages/One supporter
Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Tolkien languages
Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Simple German)
Requests for new languages/Former USSR

If there are any policies or requirements for creation other than consensus and a willing developer I cannot find them . . . '

Approved requests for new languages

This page lists proposed new languages for existing Wikimedia projects that have been discussed at the Requests for new languages page and can be created by one of Wikimedia's developers now. Please don't post any new requests here.

At some point it apppears requests are moved to this page for the benefit of developers(?). Criteria for approval on Meta are not given. However Wikisource also puts requests here after they are approved locally. Whether this practice fell into disuse or the developers simply never knew of this page . . . I do not know but I suspect the latter. Who is responsible for "clearing the board" here after creation is also unclear and it is not being done.

Other

Folowing are some other pages on meta dealing with new languages in some fashion:

Help:How to start a new Wikipedia

Do you want to start a Wikipedia in a new language? Please realize that it could need a lot of work. It will take some time to become ready to "go live". You need to know your language well and it is strongly recommended to team up with other speakers of that language. It is also good to be experienced in editing a larger Wikipedia in another language.

This is basically pre-launch instructions for Wikipedias but much of it applies to other projects this page should probably be merged with New language pre-launch in some fashion

Creation of new languages for existing projects

New languages creation at this moment cannot be seen as objective. Too many people simply vote because of an opinion, but not thanks to proven facts.

When can a language be considered a language ... that is hard, because even relying on Ethnologue or ISO 639-3 (see note below) we cannot be sure if a language really has been considered as such. One example is Griko Salentino that has two variations that are even quite different in terminology (and of course have also many things in common). Griko Salentino is a language deriving from Greek spoken in the South of Italy, in Puglia and Calabria. The language is considered to be a minority language by the Italian State. So as you can see: this is one of those cases where a language exists, but we don't have a code for it. How would such a discussion go on?

Anyway: to prove that a language is a language there are certain requirements to be met in order to get an ISO 639-3 code.

Furthermore there should also be some internal requirements – such as the Swadesh list completed on Wiktionary/WiktionaryZ (so we have the possibility to compare with other existing languages). We need a certain amount of editors to make sure the project can live (5 dedicated people is not enough ... out of ten who say that they want to contribute, normally only three really do/can do). We should at least have some texts in that language before starting any new language (see wikisource) – also a certain amount of quotes, proverbs etc. would be a solution

A recent essay(?) which goes on in greater detail

Proposed policy for wikis in new languages

This proposed policy relates to requests for new languages, not proposals for new projects. See also the related page on ISO criteria for defining new languages.

The Wikimedia Foundation aims to facilitate the dissemination of knowledge in many different languages. Currently, wikis have been created in over 200 languages. If you would like to create a new language Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikisource, or Wikiquote, you may be able to request it if it meets the guidelines on this page. The Wikimedia Commons and Wikispecies are multi-lingual projects, meaning that there are no separate editions for individual languages.

This policy should not be taken as a precedent for a proposal to close existing wikis that do not meet these criteria.

A language must be sufficiently different, in its written form (taking into account the possibility of automatic conversion between different forms when lossless conversion is possible), from a language that already has a wiki (see the complete list of Wikimedia projects). This issue is to be decided by the following test: If contributions in Language A are not accepted in any Wikipedia as-is (ie, the language will be changed), then it may be considered separate. Where this is controversial, consensus may be nessecary as well.
The proposed language must exist in a standard written form, preferrably one supported by the latest version of the Unicode standard.
For any natural language, at least 2 speakers with a (near) native level of fluency, and an additional 3 users of any existing Wikimedia project must support the request publicly.
There is no minimum number of native or fluent speakers or readers for natural languages.
Proposed languages must be presented on Meta according to the guidelines at Requests for new languages#Procedure
If there is a consensus on requests for new languages after two weeks of the initial listing, a message should be sent to wikitech-l, asking a developer to set up the wiki.
In cases where there is not consensus after two weeks, it is up to the requester to find this consensus, be it through discussion, polling, etc.
Artificial languages will need to gain consensus within the Wikimedia community before they can be created. It is up to the requester to find this consensus, be it through discussion, polling, etc. Let the proposer be warned that most artificial languages, and especially fictional languages, are unlikely to be created.

Hotly contested proposal with no activity since Dec 05