Wikipedia:WikiProject Languages

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It has been suggested that WikiProject Language families be merged into this page or section. (Discuss)
Language
articles		 Importance
None Total
Quality
Featured article FA 12 12
A 3 3
Good article GA 13 13
B 80 80
Start 202 202
Stub 375 375
Assessed 685 685
Unassessed 1952 1952
Total 2637 2637
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WP:Lang

This WikiProject aims primarily to provide a consistent treatment of each language on the Wikipedia. Many languages already have extensive pages, and the systematic information on those pages is not presented in a consistent way. The purpose of this WikiProject is to present that information consistently, and to ensure that each of the major areas is covered at least briefly for each language.

These are only suggestions, things to give you focus and to get you going, and you shouldn't feel obligated in the least to follow them. However, try to stick to the format for the Infobox for each language. See the template for an example Infobox.

The easiest way to get started writing for a language that doesn't already have an article or to convert an article to the WikiProject format is to start with the template.

Contents

[edit] Related WikiProjects

This WikiProject is a descendant of Wikipedia: WikiProject Linguistics. It has a descendant WikiProject of its own, Wikipedia:WikiProject Endangered languages.

[edit] Participants

Please feel free to add your username to this list if you have worked on converting pages to the WikiProject Languages format.

[edit] Structure

Most language articles should be on a page titled XXX language. Reasons for this recommendation:

  1. Ambiguity. While some language have special forms that refer unambiguously to the language, English is inherently ambiguous about language names. Having a standard of "XXX language" ensures that it's always unambiguous. There is always the possibility of "XXX literature", "XXX grammar", but these cannot be referred to simply as "XXX", and so are not a reason for disambiguation.
  2. Precedent. This is how Encyclopædia Britannica and many other English-language encyclopedias name their articles.
Please note that when there is nothing to disambiguate a language name from, such as Hindi, Esperanto or Inuktitut, there is no need for the "language". See Wikipedia:Naming conventions#Languages, both spoken and programming and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (languages) for the relevant naming policy.

Whether the varieties of Arabic and Chinese should be called "languages" or "dialects" continues to be a highly controversial issue. The current convention is: use NAME + Arabic for Arabic varieties (e.g. Egyptian Arabic), use NAME (linguistics) for Chinese varieties (e.g. Mandarin (linguistics)). Infoboxes are put at both Arabic and Chinese language and at their first-level subdivisions.


Even in cases in which there is a consensus that varieties of a language have a dialect status, the number and divisions between such dialects are often vaguely-defined, and controversies exist among dialectologists over whether certain varieties should be treated in a unified way or are best understood as separate though related varieties. Separate articles should only be written on varieties (e.g., Estuary English) or related groups of varieties (e.g., Hispanic English) that have been well-enough studied by linguists that at least a minimal body of literature exists about that variety or group of varieties, as a distinct dialect or group of dialects. Phonological, morphosyntactic, or lexical variation that may be considered subdialectal should be noted as "differences within X dialect,", where X is a dialect as discussed in the relevant literature. Controversies over dialect status can be noted in articles as such, but should also be based on citable work. Names used to refer to that dialect in the title should be preferred over folk-linguistic terms (e.g., Inland North versus Midwestern Accent).

[edit] Open tasks

[edit] Articles to be created

  • Kalapuya
  • Shoalwater
  • Languages of Fiji Paxsimius 20:29, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
  • Lingua Franca (language) (or perhaps putting the language at Lingua Franca and moving the current article elsewhere)
    • I'll comment in a sub-bullet (feel free to move to the discussion page): I was looking for any mention of "language of wider communication" (LWC) on Wikipedia and did not find it. LWC is, as I understand it, pretty much the same idea as lingua france (concept). To be honest I don't know about the history of use of LWC rather than lingua franca, but had assumed it to be a recent coinage until just recently seeing it in an academic article published in 1962. It's an established term: Could it somehow be useful in splitting the Lingua Franca article (assuming I understand correctly that that is being discussed)? --A12n 12:59, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Requests for expansion

And everything in Category:Language stubs and its subcategories.

[edit] Requests for attention

And the articles in Category:Languages articles needing expert attention

[edit] Good and featured articles

[edit] Good articles

[edit] Featured articles

[edit] Good article candidates

[edit] Featured article candidates

[edit] General Strategy and Discussion forum

[edit] Templates

[edit] Message for talkpages

Please add {{WP Languages}} to talk pages of relevant articles. Currently, it displays the following:

This article is within the scope of the WikiProject Languages, an attempt at creating a standardized, informative, and easy-to-use resource about languages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.
language Portal
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale.

Articles with this template are put into Category:WikiProject Languages articles.

To rate the article on the quality scale, add one of the following parameters:

  • class=FA for featured articles
  • class=A for A-class articles
  • class=GA for good articles
  • class=B for B-class articles
  • class=start for Start-class articles
  • class=stub for Stub-class articles (which may not necessarily have a "stub" message on them!)
  • class=NA for non-articles (templates, images, etc.)

See Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Assessment for guidelines on assessing article quality.

[edit] User Template

After you sign up, you can add the project userbox to your user page by adding the following: {{User WikiProject Languages}}. The template pictured below will appear:

This user is a member of the WikiProject Languages.

Your username will then automatically be added to the Category:WikiProject Language members.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Languages"
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