Tuesday, February 28, 2012

#Zulu is one of the 50 biggest languages

The Zulu language is spoken by many people so much so that it is one of the 50 most spoken languages in the world. You would assume that a Wikipedia in the Zulu language should be a thriving affair. Sadly, this is not the case. A request has been made for the Zulu Wikipedia to be closed.

The argument for closure is compelling: since the start in 2003 only 273 articles have been written and most activity is by bots, vandals and from people cleaning up the mess. A week ago I found someone willing to localise the Babel extension in Zulu but I am afraid that is as much as I can expect.

Good news is that the South African chapter has been registered. They are our local people on the ground. Some of them may speak Zulu and take pity on what is at the moment a failed project. Any subject needs articles any article needs improvement and yes, the localisation of the most used MediaWiki messages would be very welcome.
Thanks,
     GerardM

4 comments:

Robin Pepermans said...

For your information, the link to translatewiki does not work.

GerardM said...

Thank you, it is fixed now.
Gerard

அ. இரவிசங்கர் | A. Ravishankar said...

Many Indic languages come under Top 20 languages. But, the growth and quality of the Wikipedias in these languages is something to worry about.

GerardM said...

These Indic language do get some tender loving care. For Zulu there is a request to get rid of the project.. This is quite a different thing.
Thanks,
Gerard