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 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 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 High-Level Pages in Different Languages
High-level pages are highly accessed pages that are hubs for direction to other pages. These pages include the main page, country pages, family tree pages etc. They are considered high-level pages because they rarely constitute the end result of a search and are critical to finding other information. If these pages were to be haphazardly changed, they could potentially “orphan” other articles that are linked to them, meaning viewers couldn't find the article through a succession of link clicks.
English Root Articles
On high level pages, the English article is considered to be the "root article." This means that the English article must be created before any other languages for that same article can be created. In order to ensure that language templates on the Global Anabaptist Wiki work correctly, all root articles should be written in English. Creating an English root article is as easy as creating a new article.
When creating another language variant of the article, a slightly different process must be utilized.
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 the English root page. On that page insert the following "stub" template, to alert future editors to the fact that the English version is incomplete. Next, create a new page for the Spanish translation 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 "Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de Guatemala/es" to create the Spanish translation page. (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"). Regardless of the fact that root articles are written in English, root article names are written 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.
Creating New Low-Level Pages in Different Languages
Low-level pages are articles that are created consistently. Low level pages are articles that don’t have as high a risk to “orphan” other pages. If they are vandalized or haphazardly edited, very few pages will be affected and the damage can be contained. Low level pages usually include congregation pages, sources and stories. Unlike the relatively static high level pages, low level pages are pages that will continue to grow the longer the site is online.
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.
