After a month of on-list talk -- sometimes very heated, sometimes very quiet -- Language committee has agreed about the next wording of the part of the new policy [1] related to the simple languages:
* Can there be wikis in "simple" languages? *: Yes, in principle. But two special criteria would need to be met: the language should be a "world language" with many L2 users, and there must be a reliable, published specification of the controlled language to be used. Examples are [[w:en:Basic English|Basic English]] and [[w:fr:Français fondamental|Français fondamental]]. (In reality it does not appear that there ''are'' many controlled languages other then English and French.) In practice, it means that: * It is likely that just Wikipedia in simple French would be approved. If there are reliable and published specifications of other world languages (Russian, Spanish, Arabic etc.), group interested in creating project in simple language has to present it to the LangCom. * It is likely that border cases would be discussed in Language committee on case-by-case basis. For example, German is not a world language, but at least discussion would be opened if strong arguments would be given, including widely accepted definition of simple language. * It is not a matter of LangCom would any Wikipedia (or any other Wikimedia project) host project in corresponding simple language inside of a separate namespace -- with or without specification. _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l