Wikimedia Meta-Wiki

Requests for new languages/Wikipedia North Frisian 3

< Requests for new languages

North Frisian Wikipedia

submitted verification final decision
  This proposal has been approved.
The Board of Trustees and language committee have deemed that there is sufficient grounds and community to create the new language project.

The closing committee member provided the following comment:

It has been created at http://frr.wikipedia.org/
Proposal summary
Please read the handbook for requesters for help using this template correctly.

I reopen this request because the previous two were shut down because of a reform in the request process: request one, request two. Progress in the North Frisian wikipedia has been quite slow, but that can change very fast if a few native contributors can be found. All in all, I think it amply passes the requisites for eligibility, as the language is now an official language in the Nordfriesland district and on Helgoland in the German state of Sleswig-Holstein. Fentener van Vlissingen 16:10, 26 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Arguments in favour

  1. Support Support. This language has 10.000 native speakers. If we compare this to Saterlandic which has 2.000 native speakers and over 1.000 articles, I think we could conclude that this Wikipedia also has a chance in becoming a full wikipedia. --OosWesThoesBes 16:28, 26 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Support Support. Second OWTB, this wikipedia definitely has a chance. But I think we have to do more to enthuse North Frisians, of whom there are still plenty. North Frisians seem pretty well organized within both associations summed up above, so that is hopeful. Also the fact that the language is now an official language on Helgoland and in the Nordfriesland district is a promising sign. Maartenvdbent 16:41, 27 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Support Support. I vote in favor of opening North Frisian. I study Germanic languages, and having examined the Frisian varieties (and even worked with some of the nice people over at the Saterland-Frisian Wikipedia), I can say that there's a very heavy difference between the three, so founding a new Wikipedia based on speech difference is definitely warranted. Some linguists consider these three varieties, despite their mutual unintelligibility, to be dialects of one single Frisian language, while others consider them to be three separate languages, as do their speakers. (taken from here) And also view the differences between these phrase versions here. As far as the number of speakers, yeah they'll definitely pick it up in no time. —Wōdenhelm 08:56, 29 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Support Support. I am willing to contribute. Finding other (native) contributers should not be a problem since there are enough people who can. I believe there are already seven contributers to the North-Frisian Wikipedia of which two are native speakers. Kening Aldgilles 12:14, 29 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Support Support. In my opinion, it is for every language, above all for the minority languages (because they have less alternatives) important to have there own internet projects, such as Wikipedia. I'm not able to contribute as a writer yet, because I don't speak Northfrisian, and I don't know if I will learn it later. But if someone asks (on my Saterfrisian User discussion, I'm Benutser Heinz there) for a specific illustration for the Northfrisian Wikipedia, I will surely draw or paint one and support the project in this way. --Heinz 12:01, 30 August 2009 (UTC)
  6. Support Support. I am already contributing to the test, but apart from that, North Frisian has a much longer tradition as a written language than e.g. Saterlandic, and the number of people being used to writing it will be at least ten times higher. As for the dialect differences, these certainly will count less in writing. Here a comparison for the word field 'head' between the strongest dialects Mooringer and Ferring. --Pyt 15:09, 30 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  7. Support Support I don't speak North Frisian, besides a tad of Sölring, but I do support any proposal for a Wikimedia project in an endangered language. Projects like this are capable of promoting the use of an endangered language, even aiding in reversing language extinction. (ei. the Native American language Wikipedias) The only reason this project was denied in the first place was because of the differences between the dialects, but when written it's not hugely important, considering there are many similarities between the dialects and that most North Frisian speakers understand more than one dialect. -- Mikewazhere 21:15, 30 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Support Support. I am also willing to contribute. As a native speaker of fering-öömrang I hesitated writing texts up to now as it takes a certain time getting used to the Wikipedia rules and formatting procedures. But these reservations should be resolvable. Murma174 08:12, 03 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  9. Support Support. --Biŋhai 04:59, 7 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  10. Support Support. There are Wikipedias for two of the three main forms of Frisian; creating a North Frisian Wikipedia would be in line with Wikipedia's goal of helping out marginalized languages. It could also be fruitful from a purely encyclopaedic perspective: in my experience, minority-language Wikipedias encourage people to disclose local knowledge, language-related and otherwise. Ni'jluuseger 19:45, 1 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  11. Support Support. I completely agree with Ni'jluuseger. It could certainly help preserve this language and carry out a lot cultural and linguistic information, not just about Frasjlönj but alot of other topics as well. Servien 21:19, 1 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support'Support': Native speakers of North Frisian have the competency and willingness to contribute to this project in the long-term. Hence the North Frisian language deserves to be given the opportunity and priviledge to have its own language edition of Wikipedia along with the existing Frisian languages such as West Frisian, Saterland Frisian and so on. --Jose77 10:12, 16 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Arguments against

Other discussion

NEARLY 20 LOCAL CONTRIBUTORS!
Following the history of the pages about North Frisian districts (paragraph ‘’Fraschlönj’‘ at http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/frr/Hoodsid), I found 21 different sources that made at least 10 contributions average each about local subjects, which means at least 200 contributions! Only 4 of them had logged in, however, which seems to express a high amount of individualism. This means, that no real wikipedia-community exists up to now. But under such circumstances, that should be achievable in my opinion. --Pyt 10:24, 2 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

make that 22, I created an article today --Mikewazhere 20:51, 8 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A Native Speaker
Someone on the second North Frisian Wikipedia request once said they opposed a North Frisian Wikipedia unless native speakers are found, well now we have found one, possibly more if Kening Aldgilles is right. which actually makes us better of than most minority language wikipedias on the web, the best example I can think of off the top of my head is the Manx Gaelic Wikipedia, which has no native speakers contributing and has over 2,000 articles. With a native speaker and 22 contributors, the North Frisian Wikipedia really has a chance at having say 3,000 articles within a year, if more people join in. --Mikewazhere 20:51, 8 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And already made a fine article! --Pyt 21:31, 8 September 2009 (UTC). - Apart from that, those 20 probably will be native speakers too, according to their contributions. --Pyt 17:58, 9 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I am a native speaker of north frisian and contributed already in 2007, but then stopped, because there was no activity by others. Now that seems to change, and I will take part again. I wonder why the people from e.g. the nordfriisk instituut, the frisian courses at schools or other groups/journals etc. do not join. Do they still not know about the project?--Arfst 22:16, 19 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In the beginning Steinbach planned such contacts, but that still has to be done. I will try to. --Pyt 04:48, 6 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Localisation update

DONE. --Pyt 06:49, 8 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Retrieved from "https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_North_Frisian_3&oldid=27640975"