[Wikipedia-l] Starting a new language: Upper Sorbian

Mon Apr 5 15:06:12 UTC 2004

Andre Engels wrote:

>It varies, but then, it also varies for some much larger languages (Marathi
>with 65 million speakers has only 4 pages, for example). There's four
>Wikipedia languages with less than 100.000 speakers, none of them getting
>anywhere serious, however the fifth smallest language (Icelandic, 250.000
>speakers) managed to get to a number of 9 Wikipedians (with 10 or more
>logged-in edits), and is seriously trying to make something.
>
>Wikipedia languages with less than 1 million speakers:
>
>             speakers   Wikipedians  pages
>Manx             250      0             1
>Nauruan        7.000      2            16
>Maori         50.000      0             8
>Scottish      60.000      1            14
>Icelandic    250.000      9           209
>Irish        260.000      3            62
>Corsican     340.000      0            14
>Occitan      350.000      7           493
>Welsh        600.000      9           954
>Basque       600.000      5          2319
>Frisian      700.000      9           881
>
Regretably, in a few instances the proponents start the wiki in their 
language just to see if it can be done.  When they have immediate 
success, they lose interest.  I suppose that a seriously inactive 
Wikipedia could be put into suspense, and the work that has already been 
done could be revived if there is a renewed interest.  From the above 
list Manx, Maori, and Corsican would be candidates for suspension 
depending on how long since their last activity.
There would need to be a prominent mention somewhere (perhaps after the 
list of active pedias) inviting people to breathe life back into them.

Ec