Requests for new languages/Wikisource Sorbian

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This is an archived version of this page, as edited by Millosh (talk | contribs) at 04:28, 27 February 2010 (→‎Other discussion). It may differ significantly from the current version.

Sorbian Wikisource

submitted verification final decision
Discuss the creation of this language project on this page. Votes will be ignored when judging the proposal. Please provide arguments or reasons and be prepared to defend them (see the Language proposal policy).
Proposal summary
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The Sorbian Languages (historical also known as Wendish) are a small language family within the West Slavic languages. They were (and in a smaller number still are) spoken in Lusatia (Eastern part of Germany, south of Berlin) and some locations worldwide, including several places around w:Serbin, Texas and several villages in the Southeastern part of Australia.

Although written Sorbian texts before 1800 are pretty much rare, the national renaissance in the late 19th century brought a large number of scientific, historic and theological texts as well as belles lettres. That period lasted until the 1930s, when it was nearly terminated. (After WWII there was a second rebirth, but next to none of that texts are within the public domain.)

At a real-life meeting a group of Lusatian based Wikipedians (with and without Sorbian roots) came to the conclusion, that there's a need for a Sorbian wikisource. Not only as a place for sources but also as a place for Sorbian texts in general. There's already a start at Oldwikisource, but that's for Upper Sorbian only, where our intention is to include both standard languges and every Sorbian dialect. As some of us are already familiar with the German wikisource, our aim is to follow that project quality wise.

We propose the language code wen (for the whole language family) as the project code, and the language codes dsb and hsb (Lower and Upper Sorbian) as redirects, so that [[s:<target>]] works on any Sorbian Wikimedia project (dsb.wikipedia, hsb.wikipedia and hsb.wiktionary so far). The MediaWiki interface has been localised for dsb and hsb as well as de, pl, cs and en, which should include the native languages of more than 99 % of all potential users of that project. --32X 19:09, 2 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Arguments in favour

  • I agree with the overview compiled by 32X and I do support the idea. And as I try to learn the upper-sorbian language, I know how hard is to find sorbian texts on the Internet. Therefore I would like to pinpoint the fact, that sorbian wikisource would be of great help and joy to the people who are trying to learn and/or use the language but who are not in the regular real-life contact with the Sorbian real-life communities. --Tchoř 21:35, 3 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • It would be useful for both the Lusatian Wikimedia-Community and the Sorbs as much as for interested people from other regions (like Tchoř is). There are for sure enough texts that could be included and I see no argument against the installation. -- j.budissin 15:48, 6 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • There should be enougth resources for the Sorbian Wikisource. --Mike Krüger 15:39, 17 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Many sources and authors, some texts are at old.wikisource. --Dezidor 09:33, 6 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Arguments against

  • The language policy only allows for individual languages. There are hsb and dsb projects. Both languages have a complete or almost complete localisation, so it is only a matter of deciding what project has sufficient community to grant a wikisource. GerardM 11:03, 31 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Other discussion

  • A "wen" project would be good. I would like to see more written about the old Sorbian literature at de:Obersorbische Sprache and de:Niedersorbische Sprache, and maybe also create a w:Sorbian literature English article. John Vandenberg 07:44, 13 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • I also think a single "wen" Wikisource would be a good idea. The two Sorbian languages are close enough to warrant keeping their literature together in a single project. However, it's not true that Multilingual Wikisource only has Upper Sorbian. There is also oldwikisource:Category:Dolnoserbšćina. (The language categories at Old Wikisource are rather inconsistent: some use the native name, some use the English name, and some use the ISO code.) Angr 11:09, 30 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • I am relatively sure that it has been asked: What do you think to keep sources on German Wikisource? All Sorbian speakers are fluent in German and I think that it would be more logical to create project there, instead of maintaining one more Wikisource. Besides the fact that multilingual Wikisource exists. BTW, I don't want to sound paternalistic, but it seems relatively irrational to me to have one more project for maintaining by so small number of native speakers. (It is not about one more Wikimedia project, it is about one more place to take care by very limited amount of native speakers.) However, if your decision is really to have that, I am in favor. (And we "just" need to find a formal frame for that.) --Millosh 04:28, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]
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