Wikipedia:Multilingual coordination

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

We use Wikipedia-L to coordinate Wikipedia across different languages. Please take a look at the Wikipedia Embassy and join if you're interested in the coordination project.

The Wikipedia community is committed to including any and all languages for which there are Wikipedians willing to do the work. We are aware that many of the world's 6,500 languages are not well-represented on computers or the web, and we are committed to working with language speakers and computing organizations to support as many languages as possible (right to fork).

Each language Wikipedia currently has a separate set of user accounts. Links between articles in different languages are called interlanguage links.

The URL of the wikipedia for a given language is xx.wikipedia.org, where xx is the 2-letter language code as per ISO 639. For languages without an ISO 639 2-letter language code, the 3-letter language code is used, or if that also does not exist, a custom 3-letter language code is made. (On the mailing list and in discussion, people often write xx: to mean the xx-language wikipedia, as in I'm a regular on fr:.)

Table of contents
1 Encyclopedia projects

1.1 Other projects
1.2 Related projects

2 Starting a new language wikipedia
3 Statistics
4 Policy issues

4.1 Some questions you might ask
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Encyclopedia projects

See m:Complete list of language wikis available on Meta-Wikipedia for a full list.

Wiki encyclopedias that are at least somewhat active have been started in various languages:

  1. Afrikaans (http://af.wikipedia.org) - started on November 16, 2001
  2. Albanian (Shqip) (http://sq.wikipedia.org) - translated language file, six articles as of December 16, 2003
  3. Alsatian (Elsässisch) (http://als.wikipedia.org) - started on November 13, 2003
  4. Arabic (عربي) (http://ar.wikipedia.org) Started in July, 2003. Currently in initial stages of content building - Isam
  5. Aromanian (Armâneashti) (http://roa-rup.wikipedia.org) - started on May 27, 2004
  6. Bangla (বাংলা) (http://bn.wikipedia.org) - (Started January 27, 2004 [১৪ মাঘ, ১৪১০ বঙ্গাব্দ])
  7. Basque (Euskara) (http://eu.wikipedia.org) - (translation in progress, see m:Azal)
  8. Bosnian (Bosanski) (http://bs.wikipedia.org) - started on December 12, 2002 (created out of the Serbocroatian (Srpskohrvatski) (http://sh.wikipedia.org/))
  9. Bulgarian (Български) (http://bg.wikipedia.org) - started on August 3, 2003
  10. Catalan (Català) (http://ca.wikipedia.org)
  11. Chinese (简/繁 中文汉字体 簡/繁 中文漢字體) (http://zh.wikipedia.org) - started in May 2001, Main page made on November 16, 2002
  12. Corsican (Corsu) (http://co.wikipedia.org) - started on December 9, 2003
  13. Croatian (Hrvatski) (http://hr.wikipedia.org) (created out of the Serbocroatian (Srpskohrvatski) (http:/sh.wikipedia.org))
  14. Czech (Českı) (http://cs.wikipedia.org) - started on May 3, 2002
  15. Danish (Dansk) (http://da.wikipedia.org) - started on February 1, 2002
  16. Dutch (Nederlands) (http://nl.wikipedia.org) - started on August 31, 2001
  17. English (http://www.wikipedia.org) - started on January 2001
  18. Esperanto (http://eo.wikipedia.org) - started on November 15, 2001
  19. Estonian (Eesti) (http://et.wikipedia.org) - started on August 24, 2002
  20. Finnish (Suomi) (http://fi.wikipedia.org) - started on February 21, 2002
  21. French (Français) (http://fr.wikipedia.org) - started on March 23, 2001
  22. Frisian (Frysk) (http://fy.wikipedia.org) - started on September 2, 2002
  23. Galician (Galego) (http://gl.wikipedia.org)
  24. German (Deutsch) (http://de.wikipedia.org) - started on May 2001
  25. Greek (Ελληνικά) (http://el.wikipedia.org) - December 1, 2002
  26. Gujarati (http://gu.wikipedia.org)
  27. Hebrew (עברית) (http://he.wikipedia.org) - started on July 8, 2003
  28. Hindi (हिन्दी) (http://hi.wikipedia.org) - started on July 11, 2003
  29. Hungarian (Magyar) (http://hu.wikipedia.org) - started on July 8, 2003
  30. Icelandic (Íslensk) (http://is.wikipedia.org)
  31. Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) (http://id.wikipedia.org) - started on November 7, 2003
  32. Interlingua (http://ia.wikipedia.org) - started on April 29, 2002
  33. Irish (Gaeilge) (http://ga.wikipedia.org) - started on June 7, 2003
  34. Italian (Italiano) (http://it.wikipedia.org) - started on 2001
  35. Japanese (日本語) (http://ja.wikipedia.org)
  36. Javanese (Basa Jawa) (http://jv.wikipedia.org) - started on March 7, 2004
  37. Kashubian (Kaszëbsczi) (http://csb.wikipedia.org) - started on April 1, 2004
  38. Klingon (tlhIngan Hol) (http://tlh.wikipedia.org) - started on May 27, 2004
  39. Korean (Hangukeo) (http://ko.wikipedia.org) - started on October 12, 2002
  40. Kurdish (Kurdî) (http://ku.wikipedia.org) - started on January 7, 2004
  41. Latin (Latina) (http://la.wikipedia.org) - started on May 22, 2002
  42. Latvian (Latviešu) (http://lv.wikipedia.org) - started on June 2003
  43. Lithuanian (Lietuviškai) (http://lt.wikipedia.org) - started on February 19, 2003
  44. Low Saxon (Plattdüütsch / platt / niederdeusch / plautdietsch) (http://nds.wikipedia.org) - started on April 27, 2003
  45. Nahuatl (http://nah.wikipedia.org) started on August 10, 2003
  46. Nauruan (Nauruose) (http://na.wikipedia.org) - started on August 9, 2003
  47. Malay (Bahasa Malaysia) (http://ms.wikipedia.org) - started on August 12, 2003
  48. Malayalam (http://ml.wikipedia.org)
  49. Mongolian (http://mn.wikipedia.org) -started on February 29, 2004
  50. Marathi (http://mr.wikipedia.org)
  51. Norwegian (Norsk) (http://no.wikipedia.org) - started on November 26, 2001
  52. Occitan (Occitan) (http://oc.wikipedia.org) - started on October 20, 2003
  53. Polish (Polska) (http://pl.wikipedia.org) - started on September 26, 2001
  54. Portuguese (Português) (http://pt.wikipedia.org)
  55. Persian (http://fa.wikipedia.com) started on January, 2004
  56. Romanian (Română) (http://ro.wikipedia.org) - started on June 19, 2003
  57. Russian (Русский) (http://ru.wikipedia.org) started on December 2002
  58. Sanskrit (http://sa.wikipedia.org) started ??
  59. Serbocroatian (Sprskohrvatski) (http://sh.wikipedia.org) (now separated into a Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian version)
  60. Serbian (Srpski) (http://sr.wikipedia.org) (created out of the Serbocroatian (Srpskohrvatski) (http://sh.wikipedia.org/))
  61. Simple English (http://simple.wikipedia.org)
  62. Slovak (Slovensky) (http://sk.wikipedia.org) - August 13, 2003
  63. Slovenian (Slovensko) (http://sl.wikipedia.org) - started on March 8, 2002
  64. Sotho (http://st.wikipedia.org)
  65. Spanish (Castellano) (http://es.wikipedia.org)- started on May 20, 2001
  66. Swahili (Kiswahili) (http://sw.wikipedia.org)
  67. Swedish (Svenska) (http://sv.wikipedia.org) - started on June 3, 2001
  68. Tamil (தமிழ்) (http://ta.wikipedia.org) - started on September 30, 2003
  69. Thai (ไทย) (http://th.wikipedia.org) - started December 2003.
  70. Tatar (Tatarça) (http://tt.wikipedia.org) - started on September, 2003
  71. Turkish (Türkçe) (http://tr.wikipedia.org) -December 2, 2002
  72. Ukrainian (Українська) (http://uk.wikipedia.org)
  73. Urdu (اردو) (http://ur.wikipedia.org)
  74. Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt) (http://vi.wikipedia.org) - restarted on November 12, 2003
  75. Volapük (http://vo.wikipedia.org) - restarted on January 27, 2004
  76. Walloon (Walon) (http://wikipedia.walon.org)
  77. Welsh (Cymraeg) (http://cy.wikipedia.org) - started on March 15, 2003
  78. Yiddish (ייִדיש) (http://yi.wikipedia.org) - started on March 13, 2004

For the name Wikipedia in these languages, with raster image, see m:Wikipedia raster name.

See also m:Locales for the Wikipedia Software

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Other projects

There are other, non-Wikimedia, free Wiki-based encyclopedia projects independent of Wikipedia:

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Related projects

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Starting a new language wikipedia

See Wikipedia:Create a new language in Wikipedia for a tutorial on how to get a Wikipedia in your language running.

A certain amount of "critical mass" is necessary in order for a wiki to "take off". Without 5-10 people eagerly writing and arguing and playing with each other, it wouldn't be as much fun. So we encourage anyone who wants to build a wiki in their own language to also go out and announce/recruit for it. :-)

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Statistics

See Wikipedia:Multilingual statistics for a more complete overview.

As of November 1, 2003, the number of non-English language articles increased to over 50% of the total number, probably for the first time. This is an encouraging sign in favour of linguistic diversity.

As of February 18, 2004, the English language wikipedia had 209,637 articles, while the next 19 had 261,352 on this date, i.e. the number of non-English language articles was more than 55% of the total. The 2nd to 9th languages (de, ja, fr, pl, sv, nl, es, da) together had 210,448 articles, together matching the number of articles in the English language version.

As of May 6, 2004, the English language wikipedia had 261,003 articles, and the 2nd to 8th languages (de 86,269, ja 46,443, fr 35,481, pl 29,209, sv 28,260, nl 27,008, es 22,593) together had 275,263 articles, together matching the number of articles in the English language version. The Chinese (hanyu - zh) wikipedia more than doubled from February 18 to May 6 - from 4,395 to 9,457 entries.

The 20 largest Wikipedias (February 18, 2004):

  1. English (http://en.wikipedia.org/) (209637)
  2. German (Deutsch) (http://de.wikipedia.org/) (52299)
  3. Japanese (日本語) (http://ja.wikipedia.org/) (31284)
  4. French (Français) (http://fr.wikipedia.org/) (26941)
  5. Polish (Polska) (http://pl.wikipedia.org/) (23941)
  6. Swedish (Svenska) (http://sv.wikipedia.org/) (21641)
  7. Dutch (Nederlands) (http://nl.wikipedia.org/) (20847)
  8. Spanish (Español) (http://es.wikipedia.org/) (17969)
  9. Danish (Dansk) (http://da.wikipedia.org/) (15526)
  10. Esperanto (http://eo.wikipedia.org/) (10964)
  11. Italian (Italiano) (http://it.wikipedia.org/) (6112)
  12. Catalan (Català) (http://ca.wikipedia.org/) (5290)
  13. Hebrew (עברית) (http://he.wikipedia.org/) (4475)
  14. Chinese (简/繁中文汉字体 簡/繁 中文漢字體) (http://zh.wikipedia.org) -) (http://zh.wikipedia.org/) (4395)
  15. Romanian (Română) (http://ro.wikipedia.org/) (4062)
  16. Slovenian (http://sl.wikipedia.org/) (3812)
  17. Finnish (Suomi) (http://fi.wikipedia.org/) (3578)
  18. Croatian (http://ht.wikipedia.org/) (2996)
  19. Estonian (http://et.wikipedia.org/) (2641)
  20. Interlingua (http://ia.wikipedia.org/) (2579)

For an overview of the world's biggest wiki websites (Wikipedia or not), see MeatBall:BiggestWiki.

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Policy issues

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Some questions you might ask

What can I do to help?

I have just noticed the fact that the top and bottom bars are in English. Can something be done about that?

  • Those lines come from a configuration file that the public can't access (I believe). Please see the embassy for the ongoing effort to translate Wikipedia into different languages.

Here are some "international Wikipedia" policy questions. To a certain extent, these questions will resolve themselves, though.

  • How are the various Wikipedias going to be coordinated, if at all? Will we have several quite different articles in different languages? Will English be a lingua franca?
    • In the embassy we are coordinating efforts between languages.
  • What are some suggestions about what can be put on new language Wikipedia home pages?
  • Is there going to be an easy way to link from one language to another?
  • Please explain the steps to join Wikipedia with a language not in the current development list - e.g. allocation of a wiki space and hosting vs. having own domain for the national wikipedia; initial setup of the pages to be translated; promotion strategies to be adhered to, etc.? Who is in charge for this?
  • Anything else?
  • Why isn't Farsi on the language list (MAIN PAGE)??? It could certainly use more contributors.
    • It's not really active yet. This is a list of active wikipedias. Roozbeh 16:34, 31 Jan 2004 (UTC)
  • Why isn't [ki]swahili in the list above? Is there any place to find a list of *all* mediawiki sites? Why do barely-active languages like Manx appear on lists like the wikistats (http://www.wikipedia.org/wikistats/EN/Sitemap.htm) page? etc, etc. +sj+ 13:57, 2004 Mar 14 (UTC)
  • How can I write text in non-Latin texts, what I mean to say is, is there a standard program or something? If anyone knows, please let me know in my My Talk Page. Thanks ThaGrind 10:29, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)
  • User:Bst translated one of the tutorial pages into Macedonian. I'm not quite sure what Bst had in mind at the time, and the text was removed as not belonging in the English Wikipedia, but should anyone ever start a Wikipedia in Macedonian, his work is available in the page history of Wikipedia:Tutorial (Editing). Isomorphic 15:24, 11 Jun 2004 (UTC)

See also Main Pages Gallery (http://eza.gemm.nl/Wikipedia/Gallery/Gallery.htm)

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