Anabaptistwiki:Language policy

This page describes the current multi-lingual policy on the Global Anabaptist Wiki. The Global Anabaptist Wiki is a set of encyclopedic pages about the global Anabaptist church in, at the least, four languages (English, French, German, and Spanish). Articles in the Global Anabaptist Wiki should be translated into these four languages. The following are guidelines for creating articles in multiple languages.

Organization

Unlike Wikipedia the Global Anabaptist Encyclopedia is not made up of many different language encyclopedias that contain discrete information. Instead, the Global Anabaptist Wiki seeks to present the exact same content in multiple languages. Using a system of root pages and sub pages, the Global Anabaptist Wiki consolidates all different translations of a particular article under one root name.

Creating New Pages in Different Languages

Creating a New Page in English

As with any article on the Global Anabaptist Wiki, you can create a new article by creating a link to the desired article name. The new link will appear in read (meaning that at the moment the article does not actually exist). You can follow that link and begin writing the new article you wish to create (If you want to create an article about a specific group use the following code to create a link to the new article [[Group's Name]]). This new article will be the root article. In order to ensure that language templates on the Global Anabaptist Wiki work correctly, all root article should be written in English.

Creating Articles in Languages Other Than English

If you wish to write an article in a language other than English, first create the root article and then use the appropriate language code to create the article in the language of your choice. For example, if you want to create an article about the Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Guatemala in Spanish, first create a link to the root page that will be written in English using the following code [[Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Guatemala]]. On that page insert the following stub template, {{stub}}, to alert future editors to the fact that the English version is incomplete. Then, create a link to the new Spanish translation you want to write by attaching the Spanish language code (/es) to the root page title. For example if you used the [[Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Guatemala]] format to create the root page you will use the following code, [[Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Guatemala/es]] to create a link to the Spanish translation. (To create links for the same article in other languages use the following format; French: [[Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Guatemala/fr]], German: [[Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Guatemala/de]]). Notice that regardless the fact that root articles are written in English, the root article name will be in the native language of the specific congregation or group (In other words, the title for the Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Guatemala article is Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Guatemala, not Guatemalan Evangelical Mennonite Church). To learn more about language codes, see the language code section below.

Organizing Articles in Different Languages

When you start a new article, create new pages for several different translations. For instance, when you create a French version of an article about the Meserete Kristos Church (Meserete Kristos Church, Ethiopia/fr) also create Spanish and German translations (Meserete Kristos Church, Ethiopia/es and Meserete Kristos Church, Ethiopia/de). On these new pages attach the article stub template that corresponds to the appropriate languages. For example, use the {{stub}} template on the root English page and the {{stub/fr}} template on the French page, not the {{stub}}, template). By inserting the stub template you will alert future editors to the fact that these versions of an article are incomplete. To learn more about different stub templates read the stub article.

At the top of each different translation for a specific article insert the following template: {{Languages}}. This will create links to each different translation that exists for a given article.

Please note - when translating pages you need to change any categories to include the appropriate language code. For example, if you translate a page from English to French (fr) and the page contains the tag [[Category:Policy|Language policy]], you need to replace it with [[Category:Policy/fr|Language policy]]. This way category pages will be separated by language. For example, the "Paraguay" category will contain all the English articles that fall under the "Paraguay" category, while the "Paraguay/es" category will contain the the Spanish translations of those same articles.

Language Codes

Throughout the Global Anabaptist Wiki you should use the language codes specified by the MediaWiki software when creating language-specific content (see Names.php for the full and up-to-date list).

Following are the language codes French, German, and Spanish:

• French: /fr
• German: /de
• Spanish: /es

Miscellaneous

If you do not like seeing the group name in English at the head of the page, the name can be removed by inserting the following code at the top of the page: double-underline + NOTITLE + double-underline.