Talk:Language committee

Language committee (contact page about requests)

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Notifications from Langcom about proposed approvals

Rakhine Wikipedia

The Language Committee intends to approve Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Rakhine. If you have any objections to that based on the Language Proposal Policy, please tell us here on this page in the next 7 days. Meanwhile, the community is asked to check (and if necessary, complete) the wiki settings as indicated on the request page. --MF-W 19:46, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

For the record: Still trying to obtain verification of the content. --MF-W 18:19, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

...but it is going on! --MF-W 09:29, 21 October 2024 (UTC)

Any update? --ꠢꠣꠍꠘ ꠞꠣꠎꠣ (talk) 06:14, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

@MF-Warburg, Is there anything I can help for this? Ninja✮Strikers ^«☎» 12:42, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

I've sent you an email. -- MF-W 15:42, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

<blank comment>, so that it won't be auto archived yet. Joseph (talk) 09:42, 14 February 2025 (UTC)

I would like to know why this wiki(wp/rki) is taking so long to approve. I have already prepared the requests. I am currently helping as a second time test admin in wp/rki. If there are any needs, please feel free to let me know.@MF-Warburg @Joseph @Ninjastrikers YaThaWinTha (talk) 10:10, 16 February 2025 (UTC)

I am noting here that the issues are planned to be resolved in January or February. --MF-W 15:12, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Tagalog Wikisource

The Language Committee intends to approve Requests for new languages/Wikisource Tagalog. If you have any objections to that based on the Language Proposal Policy, please tell us here on this page in the next 7 days. Meanwhile, the community is asked to check (and if necessary, complete) the wiki settings as indicated on the request page. --Satdeep Gill (talk) 12:23, 22 February 2025 (UTC)

Discussions

Verification of open proposals

I am submitting a request to verify the following language project proposals. The projects meet the required criteria as outlined. In addition, three of the language projects were previously active for more than three consecutive months, but no action was taken. We have confirmed that the projects do not already exist (as per the existing list). An appropriate ISO 639 code is available. The language is sufficiently unique and specific and would not conflict with a more general wiki. There is a sufficient number of native editors available to support an edition in this language. I kindly request that you verify the following projects and review these to proceed with the process.

• Requests for new languages/Wikibooks Sylheti
• Requests for new languages/Wikiqoute Sylheti
• Requests for new languages/Wikivoyage Sylheti

Note: The following projects are relatively new and less discoverable, as they are not hosted within the Incubator. They also require separate logins across different domains, which can make them less accessible. As a result, they have attracted fewer users compared to projects within the Incubator. It is also evident that users with less technical experience may find these projects more challenging to navigate.

• Requests for new languages/Wikisource Sylheti
• Requests for new languages/Wikiversity Sylheti

ꠢꠣꠍꠘ ꠞꠣꠎꠣ (talk) 11:51, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

Any update? -- ꠢꠣꠍꠘ ꠞꠣꠎꠣ (talk) 15:26, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

In addition to that, I would like to point out that the Incubator info pages for the following projects:

• [ Sylheti Wikiversity ]
• [ Sylheti Wikisource ]

... do not provide any links to the aforementioned test projects, which are hosted on different domains. This makes it more challenging for users to discover and access the test versions of these projects. If Langcom addresses this issue, perhaps the local admins can help fix this by updating the pages to include links to the respective projects. This would improve accessibility for potential contributors. Looking forward to your response and further updates. -- ꠢꠣꠍꠘ ꠞꠣꠎꠣ (talk) 07:31, 19 December 2024 (UTC)

It’s been over 2 years since some of the proposals were made, and no LangCom member has responded. May I request the removal of the verification step from the template (Template:New wiki request)? It seems both useless and unnecessary. -- ꠢꠣꠍꠘ ꠞꠣꠎꠣ (talk) 08:50, 10 February 2025 (UTC)

Interslavic Wikipedia

Hello, dear Language Committee. The Interslavic Wikipedia has been active for the last 5 months, and the community would like the project to be approved. If I'm wrong and it's too early, please write why. Thank you! Medžuslovjanin (talk) 11:06, 3 January 2025 (UTC)

Support. TutČas (talk) 11:35, 3 February 2025 (UTC)

Support. SkullyWasHere (talk) 15:51, 13 February 2025 (UTC)

Request for Bengali Wikinews

The Bengali Wikinews project is now ready to come out of incubator. Over the past five months, it has maintained consistent activity with regular contributions and the support of a dedicated, sustainable community. If there are any concerns, please let us know. Otherwise, we kindly request the final approval from the language committee. Thank you!--Sajid Reza Karim 19:34, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

I'm very surprised at the primary contributors there, but I think that if other users' activity dropped in December and then increased again in January, if the same level of contributions continues in February, the approval process could start smoothly. Thank you for your contribution. --Sotiale (talk) 14:40, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

Proposal for Restructuring Wikinews Incubation

Dear Langcom,

I find the current approach of incubating Wikinews projects in the Incubator problematic, as these projects are primarily written and read by the contributors themselves. The extensive Incubator URLs are not shareable, and the short links are unreliable and lack trustworthiness for wider audiences. Additionally, while a Langcom member questioned why Wn/shn focuses on templates, I believe these templates offer long-term utility compared to news articles written in the Incubator, which often become stale before the project even has a chance to graduate.

One reason larger-language Wikinews projects struggle is due to competition with numerous free and monetized news outlets and portals. Smaller and medium-sized language communities, however, lack such resources and could benefit from this proposal if a Wikimedia-hosted multilingual platform available to share their news.

I propose moving Wikinews incubation to a multilingual platform at wikinews.org, similar to Multilingual Wikisource. This would provide a reasonable and shareable URL structure, addressing many of the current challenges while empowering smaller communities to publish news effectively. -- ꠢꠣꠍꠘ ꠞꠣꠎꠣ (talk) 07:48, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Nupe Wikipedia Approval Request

Nupe Wikipedia have been up and doing to ensure open knowledge is achieved in the Nupe language. Attached herewith are links showcasing the need for your attention and concerns below to get the language approved:

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Wikipedia_Nupe

https://codelookup.toolforge.org/nup

https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:PrefixIndex/Wp/nup/

With this we hope to see our language make a chance to own it's site for wider and easier usage by our existing and new editors. 787IYO (talk) 19:33, 30 January 2025 (UTC)

I'll review this as soon as I have time. Thanks for posting. --Sotiale (talk) 07:47, 31 January 2025 (UTC)

Glad for the Nupe language. The community editors should be more dedicated more and more Nupemiyo (talk) 19:05, 31 January 2025 (UTC)

I have just started discussions for approval. Good luck. --Sotiale (talk) 12:20, 3 February 2025 (UTC)

We are happy for the language community efforts towards ensuring languages are preserved. We awaits to see our site gets approved Haweey7575 (talk) 09:21, 4 February 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for the appropriate commitments. Our community members will be happy to hear that their efforts is noticed by langcom

787IYO (talk) 11:04, 4 February 2025 (UTC)

I would like to note here that this project is currently going through the verification process for approval. --Sotiale (talk) 10:04, 10 February 2025 (UTC)

We are glad to hear this important information. Thanks for the time and supports.14:03, 10 February 2025 (UTC) Haweey7575 (talk) 14:03, 10 February 2025 (UTC)

Phabricator task about adding monolingual language code apc-latn

Hi, I had created this task about adding monolingual language code apc-latn, but I see no activity on it. Who could I notify for that? Thanks in advance. TheJoyfulTentmaker (talk) 02:51, 1 February 2025 (UTC)

Seems like it's being done now. --MF-W 19:45, 6 February 2025 (UTC)

Madurese Wikisource

Dear Language Committee, the Madurese Wikisource project has been active for 7 months. We would like to request to review the project for final approval. Thanks -- Johnstad ^{Wanna Talk?} 09:35, 3 February 2025 (UTC)

Lenape Wikipedia

I have made a serious proposal to the Lenni Lenape groups at Facebook to join forces and request a Wikipedia project in the [en:Lenape] language; please see my [proposal on the web] and let me know if I have misunderstood some part of the process. Since I'm not a speaker of the Lenape language myself, I'm dependant on Lenape spekers to embrace this idea and make it their project, thus I will not issue a formal request for the project to be created unless they themselves agree it would be a good idea and come here to voice their support, hence the detailed webpage, A similar question relates to the name of the project, have I understood it correctly that Lenape speakers are free to suggest an appropriate name and orthography for "Wikipedia" in their language, such as "Sixi Nitaato" which I derived from a 17th-century vocabulary of the language compiled by Swedish clergyman [en:John Campanius] as part of his translation of Luther's Little Catechism into the Lenape language, given the words "nitaato" or "nitáto" (orthography appears to vary) meaning approximately "knowledge" or "skill" ("knowing how to do something well") and "sixi" meaning "quick", "fast"; hence "fast knowledge". I will of course defer to Lenape speakers to say whether this is indeed a proper way of forming a name or compound word in Lenape. I may have made an error suggesting that the name of "Wikidata" can likewise be translated, please let me know if this is not so and I will remove it from the proposal.

With respect to my contribution, what would my role be in this, given that I don't speak the language, well, I'm a keen Wikidata editor, eager to see more languages supported in its lexicographic project. I happen to have a personal relation to the Lenape ever since I took a [en:mitochondrial DNA] test back in 2013, and was genuinely surprised to see a few close American matches in my K1a2c haplogroup who both listed their matrilineal ancestors as Native American, knowing that cross-Bering Native American haplogroups typically begin with letters A-D or X, K had to be post-Columbian, but as both matches traced their ancestries at least back to the 1700's, they could not be explained by the late 19-century wave of migration from Scandinavia, so another explanation must be found, and when I saw that one of them had traced her ancestors back to Virginia in the early 1700's, the [en:New Sweden] colony in present-day [en:Delaware] immediately came to my mind. Therefore I believe I probably have distant cousins among the Lenape, sharing my Forest Finn ancestry from Savo, Finland, with them. This is what sparked my interest in their culture and language, to the point that I will contribute whatever little I can to the creation of a Lenape Wikipedia.--SM5POR (talk) 18:13, 3 February 2025 (UTC)

Hi, you can check out Wp/del, which includes member languages. The Unami Wikipedia is available at the incubator Wp/unm, and you can start the Munsee Wikipedia at Wp/umu. For proposals regarding new Wikimedia language projects, the correct place is Proposals for new projects. -- ꠢꠣꠍꠘ ꠞꠣꠎꠣ (talk) 08:43, 10 February 2025 (UTC)

@ꠢꠣꠍꠘ ꠞꠣꠎꠣThank you, the links you provided are quite useful to me and I must now go back and revise my public proposal. The reason I posted here is precisely that it doesn't constitute a formal request for a new project, but rather an inquiry as to whether I had understood the procedure correctly. For that matter could you please confirm that I'm on the right track with respect to translation of the name "Wikipedia" itself, please also comment on my suspicion that this does not apply to "Wikidata".--SM5POR (talk) 10:16, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

Check your links; it should be Wp/unm and Wp/umu.--Prosfilaes (talk) 19:08, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

Comment. Unami (unm) is a dead language, so Wikipedia in this language will not be created according to the policy, the request will be rejected. Wikipedia in Munsi (umu) can be requested. --Danvintius Bookix (talk) 10:28, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

I don't think that's clear. Extinct languages have been rejected, but languages like Unami, which are recently dead and where there's active language revitalization projects (e.g. The Lenape Language Preservation Project), there is a good chance it will be accepted for creation.--Prosfilaes (talk) 19:08, 11 February 2025 (UTC)

So, how about renaming unm test project to umu, to avoid policy limits on extinct languages? Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 03:24, 12 February 2025 (UTC)

There are different languages, what a renaming? And if someone can convince the committee that the Unami language is alive, then good, but I wouldn't advise it. --Danvintius Bookix (talk) 20:36, 12 February 2025 (UTC)

Hello @SM5POR! Thanks for reaching out.

While it is commendable that you want to introduce speakers to the possibility of creating Wikipedia / adding data in Wikidata in their own language, I think you need to be very clear on your page about who you are and what your input in this would be. On your page you say "We invite the […] community" and "together, we can build" and "we would love to hear your feedback". It is not clear who this "we" is, however. I think it would be best if you made clear this is your personal invitation/proposal/idea that such a project would be beneficial.

Also, creating a new Wikipedia is a long-term effort that can take a lot of time, not least because of the fact that for the approval of a new Wikipedia, the (basics of the) MediaWiki interface need to be translated and at least several users need to sustain activity on the Wikimedia Incubator project for at least several months. As far as I am aware, making it possible to enter data into Wikidata in a new language is far easier than starting a Wikipedia. Maybe that is something that you could take into account in your "advertisement page".

Other users have already mentioned the fact that ISO 639-3 considers the "Delaware languages, also known as the Lenape languages" to consist of two different language, Munsee and Unami, with a very low number of native speakers. For a Wikipedia project, it would be good to clarify who the speakers of the language who can contribute are, and which language they will use precisely. It is also possible that the best course of action would be to have both languages in one wiki. But again, this is something that should be discussed with speakers of the language(s).

About the translation of "Wikipedia" and "Wikidata", this is not something I would mention in the beginning. It is an unnecessary distraction. If a separate Wikipedia for the language is going to be approved, the community will be asked how they want to translate "Wikipedia", but that is not something that needs to be done at the beginning; the answer will probably develop over time with the contributions of native speakers. I don't know whether it is common practice to translate Wikidata's name, but that is something for Wikidata users to know.

-- MF-W 11:33, 13 February 2025 (UTC)

@MF-WarburgI appreciate your concerns, which I share with you, fact is I have deferred many of those issues by letting ChatGPT formulate the proposal, I would appreciate your comments on my revised text which may not yet have reached my web server... Part of my problem is that I have not yet established an ongoing discussion with the Lenape community. It may be that they are cautious about my true intentions, given that I'm Swedish and therefore a representative of the former colonists of their land, add to that my claim to share ancestors with them.--SM5POR (talk) 14:13, 13 February 2025 (UTC)

It doesn't seem to me that the text on your page has changed yet. However, given the fact that you haven't had any contact with "the Lenape community" yet, I suggest you don't do this at all. I mean, what are you trying to achieve? Yes, you can approach them and say "it might be possible to have a Wikipedia in your language, did you know that?" but you'd also have to say "but I can't really help you and it will be very hard". --MF-W 09:58, 17 February 2025 (UTC)

Simplified English Wikipedia

I would like to propose a Wikipedia hosting simplified versions of English Wikipedia articles, to coexist with the Simple English Wikipedia, which hosts summaries of English Wikipedia articles. I believe that by closely mirroring English Wikipedia, the most comprehensive Wikipedia currently in existence, a Simplified English Wikipedia could provide both far superior coverage (look at some of the text only prose size differences between en and simple wiki) and better language learning utility by allowing readers who find simple English trivial but en.wiki too difficult to read two article versions in parallel, referring to the simplified English version for "translations" of sentences they find too difficult. Furthermore, I believe it would be easier to create and maintain articles for an SdEWP, as copying text and changes with only some standardized grammatical modifications can be done much more quickly and easily than creating and adapting summaries out of thin air. Is this something that would survive as an actual proposal? Kaotao (talk) 17:10, 16 February 2025 (UTC)

Why wouldn't the Simple English Wikipedia be enough for this purpose? They don't "host summaries of English Wikipedia articles" - they have their own articles which are already written in simple English. EPIC (talk) 17:18, 16 February 2025 (UTC)

My idea for a Simplified English Wikipedia involved mirroring regular English Wikipedia articles as closely as possible; meaning every single sentence on a Simplified English Wikipedia would have a counterpart sentence/sentence fragment on English Wikipedia, in roughly the same place. This would facilitate coverage and quality equal to that of ENWP for a fraction of the maintenance difficulty of SEWP. I had assumed that SEWP articles were summaries, because even major articles there are often citationless. SEWP does have its own articles, which are almost always far less comprehensive than their ENWP counterparts, completely inconsistent with simple English standards (we try to accommodate for intermediate readers in a wiki that's 90% for beginners, and we end up accommodating for neither; with the expectation of parallel reading, an SdEWP could be made in uniformly simple English at a beginner level), and often overtly dumbed down or patronizing. SEWP is over a decade old now, so made-for-SEWP articles are effectively a baked in standard, which I doubt the resident editors would take too kindly to overhauling. Hence the need for a new wiki. Kaotao (talk) 17:40, 16 February 2025 (UTC)

"Is this something that would survive as an actual proposal?" I don't think so, if only for the fact that we wouldn't want to have multiple Simple-ish English Wikipedias. The idea might be better implemented as some kind of external tool that takes Wikipedia content and "simplifies" it according to "some standardized grammatical modifications". --MF-W 09:49, 17 February 2025 (UTC)

Tagalog Wikisource

Dear Language Committee, the Tagalog Wikisource project has been active for 8 months. We would like to request to review the project for its final approval. The local edition was proposed in 2010 and there has been a revitalization efforts to build it become the newest Wikimedia project in the language spoken by 29 million native speakers (2010), 54 million second language speakers (2020) or over 83 million Filipinos. Thanks. --Filipinayzd (talk) 13:20, 19 February 2025 (UTC)

Hiligaynon Wikisource

Dear Language Committee, the Hiligaynon Wikisource project has been active for 8 months. We would like to request to review the project for its final approval. The activity started in July 2024 and if approved, this would be the first Wikimedia project in the 4th most spoken native language in the Philippines. Thanks. --Filipinayzd (talk) 14:03, 23 February 2025 (UTC)