Labels in Wikidata provide
an item with a name in a language. Historically many subjects have
had different names during their lifetime. Often these names were in
different languages and sometimes in different scripts as well. Using
labels, statements and qualifiers it is possible to register all
these names. Jakarta existed before the Dutch raised it to the ground
to build Batavia. When the Dutch left Indonesia, Batavia was named
Jakarta again. The original Jakarta was named in Javanese and the new
Jakarta is named in Indonesian.
Original sources are in
its original language and, when an original text is processed, it
helps when it is made easy to link text automatically to Wikidata
items. When we have a source, we already know a lot about it. It was
written at a specific time by a specific person in a specific
environment and this knowledge helps the matching of texts to concept
known in Wikidata.
With labels recognised as
Wikidata items labels in other languages can be used to translate a
text. They can also be used as a key to enrich the experience by
including maps, illustrations and Wikipedia articles in the language
of the user.
The language committee of
the Wikimedia Foundation changed its policy for Wikidata; all
languages recognised in the ISO-639-3 will be granted the status of
eligibility when asked. This will make it easier to include the
Javanese for Jakarta or the Ottoman Turkish for Istanbul.
Thanks,
GerardM
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