Committee proposed to screen new Wikipedia languages
In an effort to restructure the process for starting new Wikipedia editions, it was proposed last week that a group of experts screen requests for new languages. The current system, which involves community debates of requests for new languages and sometimes the use of a test Wikipedia to demonstrate feasibility, has been a source of ongoing friction.
On Tuesday, Jimmy Wales proposed a new system for approving the launch of Wikipedia in new languages. The system would involve creating a committee of experts to give advisory opinions on whether a proposal involves "an actual language or merely a dialect." An outside body could be used if a suitable one is available, although existing standards such as ISO 639 and the Ethnologue have been used more as a starting point and are not widely accepted as definitive.
In his comments, Wales also outlined some principles for deciding what language editions would be appropriate. First of all, he said that editions should be encouraged "in all legitimate living natural languages". Wales indicated that it should be made easy for fluent and especially native speakers of such languages to get started.
Dialects and constructed languages would be governed by different principles, and Wikipedia editions for these would be generally discouraged (although not forbidden). Wales stated that he was concerned about these being advanced primarily for political reasons, as well as the potential for hoaxes.