Tell us about Norwegian (nn) Wikipedia

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Nynorsk wikipedia

Questionnaire

Contributors

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

Contributors comes and goes, but I guess we have arund 10 steady contributors and 10-20 regular contributers. AndersL 00:25, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I might also point out that most of these regular contributors are granted admin tools. --Harald Khan Ճ 18:30, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Are your contributors mostly native speakers?

Yes. The majority of contributors are people who also writes nynorsk. We have from time to time some contributors who else writes bokmål/neodanish, and a few bokmålusers who had switched to nynorsk.

Where do your contributors live (regions/country)?

Most of our contributors are norwegians living in norway, allthough we have some norwegians living abroad in other countries (like Australia, United Kingdom, etc). Also we've had foreigners learning or interested in nynorsk. AndersL 00:25, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have studied whether your contributors actually come from those regions of Norway where Nynorsk is strong?--Ziko 21:51, 26 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Good question. I believe it varies; some do while others do not. People have different motives for writing at the Nynorsk Wikipedia. Personally I live in and come from a region (read: Sunnhordland) where Nynorsk is the written standard preferred by the vast majority. --Harald Khan Ճ 17:45, 27 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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

The bokmål wiki have arranged a few meetings, but as far as I know, not many nynorskusers have attended there AndersL 00:25, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Other Wikipedias

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

We have contact with swedish, danish and bokmål wikis. We have a scandinavian village pump together somewhere. AndersL 00:25, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Our closest relationship would be with the Norwegian (Bokmål) Wikipedia since most of contributors write both language forms about equally well. --Harald Khan Ճ 18:30, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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

We translate mostly from bokmål and english, allthough we a few times translates from other languages if they have a good article. AndersL 00:25, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Organization and support

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

Yes, but the organization is in its preliminary stages, and is not officially registered AndersL 00:25, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Are there work groups in other organizations about Wikipedia?

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?

Nynorsk is as Bokmål regulated by the Norwegian Language Council. There is no official contact between either of the Norwegian wikipedias and the council as far as I'm aware. --Harald Khan Ճ 18:30, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

As has been mentioned elsewhere, nynorsk is the minority version of written Norwegian, though it is officially "equal". There is a large and active organization, Noregs Mållag, which works for the rights of nynorsk-users, promotes use in schools etc. I don't know of any contact with them, but I'd think that the majority of our editors are members. (The other versions of the language have smaller support organizations.) Many Norwegians are quite adamant about which is the "better" language. Where people in other countries chitchat about the weather, Norwegians are as likely to talk about language. --Hordaland 22:39, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not so sure about Hordaland's claim that most of our editors are members of Noregs Mållag. I, for one, have never been so. --Harald Khan Ճ 09:38, 31 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Who (else) supports you?
How looks your public outreach for your edition? Do you have flyers, give lectures, trainings etc.?

Not that I'm aware of; the closest would be our press releases regarding article count milestones that have reached mainstream media. --Harald Khan Ճ 18:30, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Do you get feedback from readers?
What other encyclopedias exist in your language?

Norsk Allkunnebok from 1948. AndersL 00:25, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Content

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

Each user decides which topics he/she wants to focus on, if any. Sometimes there are collaborations on creating articles within a certain topic. These collaborations typically lasts a month and their topics varies alot. --Harald Khan Ճ 18:30, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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

No

Language

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

Nynorsk Wikipedia uses the nynorskdictionary. where sideforms are accepted in articles, but name of articles and categories follows mainform. We also allow the very conservative en:Høgnorsk, but since most people will have problems reading/writing høgnorsk we name those articles "Hn/Nameofarticle" and have "Nameofarticle" in Nynorsk. There is a (small) problem that it counts one article as two, but we are looking into what we can do to that. The amount of articles in høgnorsk are so few anyway(less than 40), it is not a big problem. AndersL 00:25, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The Høgnorsk articles are (from today) not counted twice anymore. --Frokor 17:39, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It could be pointed out that though only official spellings are allowed, the language has a great diversity such that it varies alot from article to article, depending on the author. A classic example is the infinitive which may have an -a or -e suffix only; or both, in which case there are certain rules that decides when it should be an -a suffix and when it should be an -e suffix.

I should also stress that Høgnorsk is not allowed within the main 'namespace'; only on pages with the prefix mentioned above by Anders. --Harald Khan Ճ 18:30, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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

We follow a rule to not change correct spelling from one form to another, unless it is a mayor rewrite/add-on. AndersL 00:25, 29 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The language might also be changed for better consistency within the article. Edits changing the language without doing much else will be rolled back, or at least the original language form will be reinstated. As language in Norway is a sensitive topic for some; we have indeed rolled back such edits from time to time; though some of these edits could be in good faith and be caused by the editor not being familiar with more 'rare' words and language forms that are still in the written vocabulary (since Nynorsk is much less in the media than Bokmål, such awareness is weakened). --Harald Khan Ճ 18:30, 28 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]