According to a recent tweet, one of the speakers at the recently concluded Localization World Conference in Vancouver (29-31 Oct. 2014), pointed out a specific need in the area of African language Wikipedia editions:
The speaker was probably referring to Krio, a creole language that is the most widely spoken lingua franca in Sierra Leone. In my limited understanding, the pidgin forms of Liberian English spoken in Liberia, however, are not the same, even as they share some characteristics. None of the above are spoken significantly in Guinea, the third country in West Africa most impacted by the ebola epidemic.
Nevertheless, this raises an important issue, since Krio is a language with a written form that is said to be spoken by 90% of Sierra Leoneans. It is evidently already used in at least some kinds of ebola communication, and would be a logical immediate focus for developing and disseminating further information on ebola and other health topics.
A response to the above tweet informs us that there is already the foundation of a Wikipedia edition in Krio:
So the next question is how to encourage development of this nascent Krio Wikipedia? Perhaps starting with ebola and other health-related info via the WikiProject Medicine's Translation Task Force and the Ebola translation task force?
Henderson: Wikipedia does not have the infrastructure to support Creole. A language most widely used in #Ebola hit countries. #locworld
— Gary Lefman (@CiscoL10N) October 31, 2014
The speaker was probably referring to Krio, a creole language that is the most widely spoken lingua franca in Sierra Leone. In my limited understanding, the pidgin forms of Liberian English spoken in Liberia, however, are not the same, even as they share some characteristics. None of the above are spoken significantly in Guinea, the third country in West Africa most impacted by the ebola epidemic.
Nevertheless, this raises an important issue, since Krio is a language with a written form that is said to be spoken by 90% of Sierra Leoneans. It is evidently already used in at least some kinds of ebola communication, and would be a logical immediate focus for developing and disseminating further information on ebola and other health topics.
A response to the above tweet informs us that there is already the foundation of a Wikipedia edition in Krio:
@CiscoL10N @donosborn there is a Krio incubator http://t.co/vIsj12p75C if there's enough activity it can become a full fledged Wikipedia
— Denis Jacquerye (@moyogo) November 3, 2014
So the next question is how to encourage development of this nascent Krio Wikipedia? Perhaps starting with ebola and other health-related info via the WikiProject Medicine's Translation Task Force and the Ebola translation task force?
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