Gerard, on my e-mail this shows as a reply to an e-mail thread from 2005. Was this your intention?
2012/3/21 Gerard Meijssen <[email protected]> > Hoi, > There is a process for the start of new projects and for the start of new > language versions. This is a formal process and it does not involve the > voting of people. What it does involve is the existence of languages > recognised in the ISO-639-3. As such Norwegian, or the no /nor code is > considered a macro-language and does not qualify for a new project. > > It is explicitly understood that by no.wikipedia.org we expect it to be > Bokmal. > Thanks, > GerardM > > http://translatewiki.net/wiki/Portal:No > > 2005/4/25 Bjarte Sørensen <[email protected]> > > > Dear all, > > > > Most of you would be aware of some of the discussions that have occurred > > around Wikipedia in the Norwegian languages. Since the last round of > > discussions on this list, there has been a lot of internal debate, as > > well as what seems to be a fairly widely accepted agreement following > > voting. > > > > This e-mail intends to, after a brief recap on Norwegian language and > > wikipedia issues, take those interested through the latest development > > and will stake out the road ahead. It is also intended to inform the > > international community about the current agreement on no.wikipedia, so > > as to prevent misunderstandings in the future. > > > > Finally, we will mention an unfortunate reaction to the vote by a small > > number of users at the Norwegian Bokmål/Riksmål (no:) wikipedia who want > > to disregard the result of the voting and are planning to create a > > _third_ Norwegian wikipedia with the sole mission of mixing the contents > > of the two current Norwegian versions. > > > > == A short language history of Norway == > > > > Spoken Norwegian ("norsk") (ISO 639-2 alpha-2 code "no") is in a fairly > > unique situation compared to most other languages of the world in that > > it has two widely accepted written standards, Bokmål (ISO 639-2 alpha-2 > > code "nb") and Nynorsk (ISO 639-2 alpha-2 code "nn"). By national > > legislation they are both regarded as official written forms of > > Norwegian. In addition, many people still make a distinction between > > Bokmål and its precursor which still is in use, Riksmål. > > > > Briefly speaking, Bokmål and Riksmål are descendants of the Danish > > written language. Until the 1800s, Danish was the only widely used > > written language in Norway as a result of four centuries of union with > > Denmark. With increasing independence came a wish to norwegianise the > > Danish standard, with Knud Knudsen at the forefront for changing parts > > of the vocabulary and orthographics. Thus, Riksmål, and later Bokmål, > > resulted. These forms together are today probably used by about 90% of > > Norway's population, or somewhere around 3,500,000 people. > > > > Parallel to this development, a new written standard was created by Ivar > > Aasen. He travelled extensively throughout Norway, and based his new > > language, landsmål, on the grammar and vocabulary of dialect samples > > from around the country. This was later renamed Nynorsk. Modern Nynorsk > > differs significantly from modern Bokmål, and may be linguistically > > looked upon as as different (or as similar if you like) as Swedish is to > > Danish. For English or Dutch/German speakers, the differences may be > > likened to those between (Lowland) Scots and English or Low German and > > Dutch. Today it is estimated that about 500,000-600,000 people have > > Nynorsk as their first written language. > > > > More information about the Norwegian language history can be found in > > English, German, French, Spanish or Portuguese on the website of the > > Norwegian Language Council: > > http://www.sprakrad.no/templates/Page.aspx?id=653 > > > > == A short history of Wikipedia in Norwegian == > > > > The first Norwegian wikipedia started 26 November 2001 on the subdomain > > no.wikipedia.org. As most wikipedias, its contributor and article count > > started really picking up around the end of 2003. At the time, it > > accepted all written standards of Norwegian, although the amount of > > Nynorsk was minimal. There were already several debates about the > > feasibilty and appropriateness of keeping the two languages united on > > one Wikipedia. On 31 July 2004 a Wikipedia for Nynorsk was created. > > > > The creation of nn:, however, split the community at no: wikipedia. Many > > felt that given that Nynorsk now had its own wikipedia, no: should > > become a Bokmål/Riksmål Wikipedia only. Others disapproved and claimed > > that there was no need to change and that it should continue its > > language policy of accepting all and keep its interwiki link name of > > "Norsk". > > > > Nynorsk Wikipedia soon proved a success, as it within the next few > > months gathered several people who had felt uncomfortable in the > > (mainly) Bokmål environment at no:. The name displayed in interwiki > > links became "Norsk (nynorsk)" (languages are not spelt with upper case > > in Norwegian). To date it continues to be one of the fastest growing > > wikipedias, with a steady article increase, now at over 6000 articles > > and >50 editors with more than 10 edits since arrival. > > > > == Votes == > > > > The issue of no:'s language policy has come up time and again, and a > > vote was held in March ([[:no:Wikipedia:Målform]]) as to which policy to > > adapt. Independent of the method of the tally (whether or not to include > > new contributors etc.) there was a majority for switching to a > > Bokmål/Riksmål only language policy (50% for Bokmål/Riksmål, 43.2% for > > Bokmål/Riksmål/Nynorsk/Høgnorsk, and 6.8% for the official variants > > Bokmål/Nynorsk only). > > > > Following this result, there is now going to be a vote on which > > interwiki link name will most appropriately reflect the current language > > policy of no:. The result of this vote will most likely be either "Norsk > > (bokmål)" or "Norsk (bokmål/riksmål)". > > > > Understandably, there has also been a debate as to whether the subdomain > > should change from "no" to "nb", as this is the correct representation > > of Bokmål according to ISO 639-2. However, there is some resentment > > towards such a move and currently a general acceptance in letting the > > Bokmål wikipedia stay at "no". The alternative some have suggested is a > > server-side redirect from "no" to "nb", in the same way that "nb" today > > is a server-side redirect to the equivalent page on "no". > > > > == Summary of the problem == > > > > Unfortunately, a small group of users (who all write Bokmål/Riksmål) are > > ignoring the results from the vote, and are claiming they want to > > re-establish a wikipedia for all written standards of Norwegian. They > > claim they have been in touch with people centrally in Wikimedia > > (developers? stewards?) and that they have so far received positive > > comments. With this email, we would like to state the fact that there > > have been no official decisions about creating a third Norwegian > > wikipedia containing both Bokmål and Nynorsk, it is merely an unofficial > > initiative from a small group of users which started a sign-on list at > > [[:no:Bruker:Norsk_Wikipedia]]. A spontaneous list with signatures > > against this activity was immediately created at > > [[:no:Wikipedia-diskusjon:Fellesnorsk]]. The process of creating a third > > Norwegian wikipedia has not gone through a voting process in any of the > > two existing Norwegian wikipedias (no: and nn:) and can not be > > considered as a decision by the Norwegian Wikipedia community. > > > > We believe the creation of a third wikipedia under the Wikimedia > > foundation would have a serious and unfortunate impact on the existing > > wikipedias in Norwegian, no: and nn:, and would undermine Wikipedia's > > reputation in Norway. This being said, we are all for extensive co- > > operation between the four Scandinavian language wikipedias (including > > Swedish and Danish), as evident by the recent creation of > > [[:meta:Skanwiki]], the Scandinavian meta-pages, and the use of featured > > articles from neighbour wikipedias. > > > > == Conclusion == > > > > Hopefully, this letter will help people better understand the > > complicated language situation of the Norwegian Wikipedia community, so > > as to give a background on which discussion can take place on this list > > in the future, such as the inevitable debate following a possible > > request for a re-establishment of the common (and third!) Norwegian > > Wikipedia. > > > > >From the community of no.wikipedia.org and nn.wikipedia.org, > > > > Bjarte Sørensen [[:meta:User:BjarteSorensen]] (Administrator/bureaucrat > on > > nn:) > > Lars Alvik [[:no:User:Profoss]] (Administrator/bureaucrat on no:) > > Øyvind A. Holm [[:no:User:Sunny256]] (Administrator on no:) > > Onar Vikingstad [[:no:User:Vikingstad]] (Administrator on no:) > > Jon Harald Søby [[:no:User:Jhs]] (Administrator on no:) > > Chris Nyborg [[:no:User:Cnyborg]] (Administrator on no:) > > Guttorm Flatabø [[:no:User:Dittaeva]] (Administrator on nn:) > > Gunleiv Hadland [[:meta:User:Gunnernett]] (Administrator on nn:) > > Jarle Fagerheim [[:nn:User:Jarle]] (Administrator on nn:) > > Øyvind Jo Heimdal Eik [[:en:User:Pladask]] (Administrator on nn: and no:) > > Kristian André Gallis [[:nn:User:Kristaga]] > > Vegard Wærp [[:no:User:Vegardw]] > > Nina Aldin Thune [[:no:User:Nina]] > > Thor-Rune Hansen [[:no:User:ThorRune]] > > Claes Tande [[:no:User:Ctande]] > > Arnt-Erik Krokaa [[:no:User:AEK]] > > Rune Sattler [[:no:User:Shauni]] > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikipedia-l mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikipedia-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l > _______________________________________________ Wikipedia-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l
