Language proposal policy/Pathoschild

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This page is no longer maintained and may be outdated: moved to m:Special projects subcommittees/Languages/Policy/Pathoschild.
Language proposal policy (Pathoschild proposal)
This is a draft policy for processing proposals for new language subdomains of existing projects. Pathoschild wrote this proposal 11 November 2006 and implemented it on Meta through the community on 21 November 2006. Although it is the current policy governing requests, it is not approved by the language subcommittee.


There are several points you must consider when creating a new language. Please review the full text of this page before submitting a proposal.

Contents

[edit] Application procedure

[edit] Prerequisites

Please ensure that the following statements are all correct concerning the proposed language.

  1. The proposal is to open a new language Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiquote, or Wikiversity.
    Meta-Wiki, the Wikimedia Commons and Wikispecies are multilingual projects, so that there are no separate editions for individual languages. Wikisource and Wikinews have their own request pages: Wikisource, Wikinews.
  2. That language project does not already exist (see the complete list of Wikimedia projects).
  3. The language is sufficiently different from any current language (see the complete list of Wikimedia projects) to be mutually incomprehensible.
    Where this is questionable, the issue should be decided by the normal process described below. Different written forms of the same basic language should be included on the same wiki, possibly on different pages.
  4. It has a valid ISO 639-2 or ISO 639-3 draft code, or you have proposed a compatible language code.
    If there is no standard ISO code for your language, you will need to propose a code that is more than three letters long. The recommended format combines a generic code for the language family (such as gem for Germanic languages) with a three letter code for the proposed language (such as fiu-vro combining "other Finno-Ugric languages" with a code invented for the Voro language). This procedure may not be ideal for all circumstances, but should be followed if reasonable.
  5. The proposal has a sufficient number of speakers to form a viable community and audience. If the proposal is for an artificial language such as Esperanto, it must have a reasonable degree of recognition as determined by discussion.
    • The best way to demonstrate the viability of the community is to begin creating content in that language on the Development wiki. A proposal with a flourishing community and a sizeable repertoire of content is much more likely to be accepted than one with no community or content.
    • Many users consider fictional languages (such as Klingon) to be unacceptable, and such proposals may get strong opposition. A precedent of note is the Klingon Wikipedia, which was eventually shut down (see archived discussion).

[edit] Initial proposal

Please ensure that the following statements are all correct concerning yourself and your proposal.

  • You have an account on this Meta-Wiki.
  • You have provided all required information, as explained in the following sections.

[edit] Create the subpage

Create a new subpage named "Requests for new languages/Project Language name", where language name is the English name if that exists. Provide the following information (see the example below):

  • language
    • The English language name; if an article on the English Wikipedia exists, link the name to that page.
    • The native language name, if it's different from the English name.
    • The ISO code, in the form <code> <ISO standard number>. See w:List of ISO 639-2 codes and w:List of ISO 639-3 codes (select one). If there is none, create one (see "Prerequisites" above) and write it in this format: "language (code [invented])".
  • Users interested in forming a community.
  • Relevant pages and external links.

Place the following example content, replacing the information with facts relevant to your proposal per the instructions above and in the template. The request below would be on a page named "Requests for new languages/Wikipedia French".

===French Wikipedia===
{{:Requests for new languages/header|open}}
{{New language proposal
 |language  = [[w:French language|]] (''français'', fr ISO 639-1)
 |community = [[User:Pathoschild|]] ('''N/P'''), [[User:Joe|]], [[User:Bob|]] ('''N''')
 |links     = [[incubator:Wp/fr|development wiki project]]
 |external  = [http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/ai-ia/fi-if/index_e.cfm International Francophonie]
}}

Replace this line with your opening argument in favour of the new project.

example removed, template does not exist here.

[edit] Place it on the main page

On Requests for new languages, add "{{/Project Language name}}" at the bottom of the appropriate section.

[edit] Discussion

Users are encouraged to discuss whether it is a good idea to open the new language. However, this is not a vote. Even if there is strong support, the proposal may be denied if there are strong arguments against its creation and insufficiently strong arguments in support as judged by the closing administrators.

[edit] Conditional approval

If discussion indicates that the project is a good idea and would prosper, a Meta administrator will close the discussion with the "{{:Requests for new languages/status|passed1}}" template.

(The Meta administrator closing the proposal must be impartial, having no overriding opinion regarding the proposal. This does not mean that they cannot participate in the discussion by providing unbiased facts or links to precedent discussions. The decision may be reviewed by other Meta administrators.)

At least five active users must edit that language before a test project will be considered successful. You are encouraged to search for interested contributors yourself, as this may speed up the process considerably. These users must explicitly state that they are willing to contribute time and effort to the project. Note that a project may be closed if there is little or no activity within the first year.

[edit] Final approval

If the test project is successful, a Meta administrator will change the template on the proposal page to "{{:Requests for new languages/status|passed2}}" and begin drafting a summary of the discussion and the growth of the test wiki. The number of users that supported or opposed the project is irrelevant.

This brief report will be submitted to the developers via the appropriate mailing lists and bug requests. This may be a lengthy process, since the developers are very busy and new language creation is not a high priority. You are strongly encouraged to continue developing the test project. This may accelerate the process over a proposal with no active community. For Wikipedia proposals, the List of articles every Wikipedia should have may be useful in doing this. All pages developed as part of a test wiki can be transferred to the real wiki when it is opened.

When the wiki is opened, this template on the proposal page will be changed to "{{:Requests for new languages/status|passed3}}".

[edit] Frequently asked questions

Please read the above procedure, particularly the prerequisites, for other information.

[edit] Languages

  • How many speakers are necessary?
    There should be enough speakers to form a viable community and audience. Whether a particular language qualifies depends on discussion.

[edit] Test project

  • When and how are test projects created?
    Anyone can create a test project at any time after opening a new request. For more information, see the Incubator wiki's main page.

[edit] See also

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