Talk:Proposal for Sinitic linguistic policy

Why is Scottish English (Scots) allowed and Chinese dialects still in discussion after 2 years?

Scottish Wikipedia: http://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page This is the welcome message: "Guid tae see ye at the Scots Wikipaedia, the first encyclopaedia in the Scots leid!" This is not Gaelic, I can read it easily as an English speaker. I suggest the opposition back off, and let those who want to create Wikipedias in their respective Chinese dialects have the opportunity. -nishishei

Suggestions

Cross posted from the Wikipedia-L mailing list"

Might I suggest a few things:

1. Provide a link to the "heated debate on Wikipedia-l" that you are referring to.
2. Provide a link to the previous vote that you cite.
3. Provide two separate sections for voting on Cantonese and Wu, since you say, "If you wish to choose on a case-by-case basis, please vote in both sections..." and there are not two sections.

These would all be helpful, regardless of one's stance on the issue. Thanks. -- Fuzheado 09:17, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

Native speakers of the aforementioned languages

While it's not 100% relevant, I felt it might be interesting to include a list of which of the people who have voted here are native speakers of a Sinitic language other than Mandarin. Many of the users are people I have contacted specifically to inform them of the vote -- basically everyone on the list except for Pektiong, Chun-hian, and Jasonzhuocn.

If there's a list somewhere of Wu or Hakka-speaking Wikipedians, I would be very interested in that too.

Support votes

1. Pektiong (Minnan)
2. Chun-hian (Minnan)
3. Jasonzhuocn (Mandarin Chinese)
4. Kaihsu (Minnan)
5. Bourquie (Cantonese)
6. Connie (Cantonese)
7. Eternal (Cantonese)
8. Jogloran (Cantonese)
9. MilchFlasche (Minnan)
10. nishishei (Shanghainese)

Oppose votes

1. Hello World! (Cantonese)
2. Zektonic (Cantonese)
3. Crosstimer (Cantonese)

--Node ue 04:03, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

Discussion about a code for Cantonese

Sadly, the code "zh-yue" is the only reasonable registered code for Cantonese so far (in RFC 3066). "We should instead use separate codes for each of the languages.": This can be facilitated by applying for a new ISO 639-2 code at the maintenance agency, or by waiting for the next update in the ISO 639 series of standards. – Kaihsu 12:59, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Has anyone got any experience? We should better make a joint application. The criteria looks harsh. - CantoneseWiki 15:16, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

"The request for a new language code shall include evidence that one agency holds 50 different documents in the language or that five agage. Documents include all forms of material and is not liencies hold a total of 50 different documents among them in the langumited to text." This would easily be fulfilled by providing, say, a library with 50 recordings of RTHK programmes. – Kaihsu 08:16, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

What can we actually do to increase the possibility that the application would be accepted? I suppose audio documents would not be enough, as they would argue it is just a spoken dialect, with no written notability. - CantoneseWiki 18:19, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

Find 50 books written in colloquial Cantonese then. It should not be that difficult anyway. – Kaihsu 12:19, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

Don't really think it's possible. Actually is it a must to have IANA or ISO-639-2 code? ang, als and nds do not seem to be. - CantoneseWiki 20:02, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

The codes 'ang' and 'nds' are ISO 639-2 codes. I do not know where 'als' came from, but I would advise against using it as a precedent for creating something ad hoc. There must be more than 50 books in the world written in Cantonese – for example, Hong Kong Legislative Council debates, court proceedings and decisions, work by 黃霑, comicbooks, etc. – Kaihsu 19:00, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

Sadly, the Hansard, even the floor version, is already translated into standard written Chinese when uploaded on the website. The same happens with proceedings and judgements of law courts. Yes there are probably more than 50 books written in Cantonese, but they are not all kept in one library. I have so far found one library with more than 50 books writing about Cantonese, but not written in Cantonese. Any idea where we can find a library with 50 books written in Cantonese, or, say, 30 books and 20 audio-visual media items? Is there any version of the Bible published in written Cantonese? - CantoneseWiki 21:09, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

The major one of the criteria is: "The request for a new language code shall include evidence that one agency holds 50 different documents in the language or that five agencies hold a total of 50 different documents among them in the language. Documents include all forms of material and is not limited to text." So they do not all have to be in the same place. I think it is more efficient if you make a query with the agency yourself. Alternatively, use the code 'zh-yue' per RFC 3066, or wait for ISO 639-6 to come out (in which Cantonese will be assigned a 3-letter code). – Kaihsu 08:19, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

The application is in process. In the meantime an alternative would be to propose to reside it at cantonese.wikipedia.org, to avoid the point of view that it is a dialect. - CantoneseWiki 18:02, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

Anonymous votes

So, should we allow evil anonymous users such as myself vote? Who's to say we're not tricking you to evilly vote multiple times per person? Your thoughts? --71.35.50.91 00:27, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

No. I oppose anonymous votes. You can easily register for a username.--Jusjih 17:20, 22 February 2007 (UTC)