Language proposal policy

Please review the full text of this page before submitting a proposal.

The language subcommittee processes requests in accordance with the application procedure and prior experience with requests and projects. The subcommittee can skip steps in the procedure if they consider a request to have already met the objectives of those steps. Proposals for projects in a language that already has a well-established project may be fast-tracked in this way.

The following requirements must be met by requests before they can be approved; although they can be met at any time before or after a request, we recommend fulfilling the basic requirements before making a request. If you need any help or have questions, please ask a subcommittee member.

• Requisites for conditional approval
  1. The proposal is to open a new language edition of an existing Wikimedia project that does not already exist (see the complete list of Wikimedia projects).
  2. The language should have a valid ISO 639-3 (ISO 639-3 registry search by Pathoshild) or BCP 47 (list) code.

     If there is no valid ISO 639-3 or RFC 4646 code, it should be a natural language or a well-established constructed language. The Wikimedia Foundation does not seek to develop new linguistic entities; there must be an extensive body of works in that language. The information that distinguishes this language from another should be sufficient to convince standards organizations to create an ISO 639-3 or BCP 47 code.

  3. The language must be sufficiently unique that it could not coexist on a more general wiki. In most cases, this excludes regional dialects and different written forms of the same language.

     The degree of difference required is considered on a case-by-case basis. The subcommittee does not consider political differences, since the Wikimedia Foundation's goal is to give every single person free, unbiased access to the sum of all human knowledge, rather than information from the viewpoint of individual political communities.

  4. The proposal has a sufficient number of interested editors to form a viable community and audience. If the proposal is for an artificial language such as Esperanto, it must have a reasonable degree of recognition as determined by discussion.

     Many users consider fictional languages (such as Klingon) to be unacceptable, and such proposals may get strong opposition. A precedent of note is the Klingon Wikipedia, which was eventually shut down (see archived discussion).

• Requisites for final approval
  1. There is an active test project on the Incubator wiki.

     A project should start on the Incubator wiki. This will demonstrate that there is sufficient community to build the project. If there is no valid ISO 639 or BCP 47 code, the test project will provide some of the material to present to the World Language Documentation Center. This is also a good occasion to translate the MediaWiki software if there is no version in that language.

  2. There are localization files available in that language.

     The MediaWiki interface is created from localization files for each language. If there are no files for this language yet, the language subcommittee will contact the community to arrange for translation before the wiki can be created.

Please ensure that the following statements are all correct concerning yourself and your proposal.

• You have an account on this Meta-Wiki.
• You have provided all required information, as explained in the following sections.

Create a new subpage named "Requests for new languages/Project Language name", where language name is the English name if that exists (for example, "Requests for new languages/Wikipedia French"). Place the following template on the page:

===French Wikipedia===
{{ls-header|open}}
{{New language proposal
 |language = [[w:French language|French]] (''français'', fr RFC 4646)
 |community = [[User:Pathoschild|]] ('''NP'''), [[User:Joe|]], [[User:Bob|]] ('''N''')
 |links = [[incubator:Wp/fr|development wiki project]]
 |external = [http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/ai-ia/fi-if/index_e.cfm International Francophonie]
}}
Replace this line with your opening argument in favour of the new project.

Provide the following information (change the example above):

• language
  • The English language name; if an article about the language exists on the English Wikipedia, link the name to that page.
  • The native language name in italics, if different from its English name.
  • A valid ISO 639 code. You can often find this code in Wikipedia's article on the language, or by searching ISO639DB
• Users interested in forming a community. Write "(P)" beside the proposer's name, and "(N)" beside native speakers.
• Relevant pages and external links.

On Requests for new languages, add "{{/Project Language name}}" (for example, {{/Wikipedia French}}) at the bottom of the appropriate section.

Users are encouraged to discuss whether it is a good idea to open the new language. However, this is not a vote. The project will be assessed on its linguistic merits and chances of flourishing. Even if there is strong support, the proposal may be denied if there are strong arguments against its creation and insufficiently strong arguments in support as judged by the language subcommittee.

If discussion and past experience indicates that the project is a good idea and would prosper, the language subcommittee will conditionally approve the language (with the "{{ls-header|conditional|comment ~~~~}}" template). The conditions for final approval will be explained in the header.

The users should begin writing a test project on the Incubator wiki now, if they haven't already. At least five active users must edit that language regularly before a test project will be considered successful. You are encouraged to search for interested contributors yourself, as this may speed up the process considerably. These users must explicitly state that they are willing to contribute time and effort to the project. Note that a project may be closed if there is little or no activity within the first year.

If the test project is successful, the language subcommittee will approve the request (with the "{{ls-header|approved}}" template) and notify the Board of Trustees. If the board does not object after at least four days, developers will be asked to create the wiki.

The number of users that supported or opposed the project is irrelevant. When the wiki is approved by the board and opened, the header comment will be updated to reflect this.

Users are strongly encouraged to continue developing the test project while they are waiting for the wiki to be opened. This may accelerate the process. For Wikipedia proposals, the List of articles every Wikipedia should have may be useful. All pages developed as part of a test wiki can be transferred to the actual wiki when it is opened.

• Can there be wikis in ancient languages?

  Yes. There are already wikis available in Latin, Old English, Gothic, Old Church Slavonic, Pali and Sanskrit.

• Can there be wikis in artificial languages?

  Yes. There are already wikis available in Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua, Interlingue, Lojban, Volapük and Novial. See the relevant note under the prerequisites for cautionary information about fictional languages.

• How many speakers are necessary?

  There should be enough speakers to form a viable community and audience. Whether a particular language qualifies depends on discussion.

• When and how are test projects created?

  Anyone can create a test project at any time after opening a new request. For more information, see the Incubator wiki's main page.

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• Proposals for closing projects
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• Pages using RFC magic links