Egyptian Arab is a language recognised with the arz code in the ISO-639-3. For this language a Wikipedia was requested. A lot of work needs to be done before it is ready to have its own Wikipedia. There is the Incubator project, finding a group of people interested in becoming a community and the localisation of the most used MediaWiki messages.
It would be cool if we could have this project go live in Alexandria.. maybe have a talk or a lightning talk about the experience ?
Thanks,
GerardM
4 comments:
Isn't there also an issue that most of the spoken Arabic varieties have little standardization in written form?
Not necessarily. There are several projects that do not have a fixed orthography. The most vital thing is the recognition that this IS the language.
For people who find it hard to learn to read and wrote standard Arab may find this a missing link that helps them make the connection.
Thanks,
GerardM
IMO, such Egyptian Arabic wikipedia would be perceived with much suspicion among intellectual circles in Egypt (and other Arabic countries as well), many might consider it a compromise to the Classic Arabic being the only written language, views ranges from considering it as an attack against Islam (of which Arabic is the *language*) or Arabisation efforts. Arabs are usually very conservatives about their language, seeing it as the sacred language of Islam. I'm afraid this might give a bad impression about wikipedia.
Hoi,
This project will be, like any other Wikipedia, a project of its community. When Egyptians feel threatened by Egyptian Arab, they fear their own compatriots. This would be a sad thing indeed.
I expect that acceptance of Egyptian Arab will help spread literacy, this in turn will enable more people to learn classic Arab and read the Koran as a consequence.
Thanks,
GerardM
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