<h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading"><span dir="auto">Project:Language policy</span></h1>
<div id="jump-to-nav" class="mw-jump">
Jump to: <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project%3ALanguage_policy#mw-head">navigation</a>, <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project%3ALanguage_policy#p-search">search</a>
</div>
<table class="nmbox" style="border:1px solid #aaaaaa;border-collapse:collapse;clear:both;font-size:85%;margin:0.5em 0">
<tbody><tr style="background:#eef3e2">
<th class="mbox-image" style="white-space:nowrap;padding:4px 1em;border-right:1px solid #aaaaaa"><b><strong class="selflink">Language:</strong></b></th>
<td class="mbox-text" style="background:#f6f9ed"><b><strong class="selflink">English</strong></b> • <span lang="de"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Language_policy/de" title="Project:Language policy/de">Deutsch</a></span> • <span lang="diq"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Language_policy/diq" title="Project:Language policy/diq">Zazaki</a></span> • <span lang="es"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Language_policy/es" title="Project:Language policy/es">español</a></span> • <span lang="fr"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Language_policy/fr" title="Project:Language policy/fr">français</a></span> • <span lang="id"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Language_policy/id" title="Project:Language policy/id">Bahasa Indonesia</a></span> • <span lang="ja"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Language_policy/ja" title="Project:Language policy/ja">日本語</a></span> • <span lang="ko"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Language_policy/ko" title="Project:Language policy/ko">한국어</a></span> • <span lang="pl"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Language_policy/pl" title="Project:Language policy/pl">polski</a></span> • <span lang="pt"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Language_policy/pt" title="Project:Language policy/pt">português</a></span> • <span lang="pt-br"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Language_policy/pt-br" title="Project:Language policy/pt-br">português do Brasil</a></span> • <span lang="tr"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Language_policy/tr" title="Project:Language policy/tr">Türkçe</a></span> • <span lang="uk"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Language_policy/uk" title="Project:Language policy/uk">українська</a></span> • <span lang="vi"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Language_policy/vi" title="Project:Language policy/vi">Tiếng Việt</a></span> • <span lang="zh"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Language_policy/zh" title="Project:Language policy/zh" class="mw-redirect">中文</a></span> • <span lang="zh-hans"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Language_policy/zh-hans" title="Project:Language policy/zh-hans">中文（简体）</a></span> • <span lang="zh-hant"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Language_policy/zh-hant" title="Project:Language policy/zh-hant">中文（繁體）</a></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p>This page describes the current <b>multi-lingual policy on MediaWiki.org</b>.</p>
<div class="floatright"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/File:Geographylogo.svg" class="image" title="Languages"><img alt="Languages" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/Geographylogo.svg/150px-Geographylogo.svg.png" height="150" width="150"></a></div>
<table id="toc" class="toc">
<tbody><tr>
<td>
<div id="toctitle">
<h2>Contents</h2>
</div>
<ul><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project%3ALanguage_policy#Help:_namespace"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">Help: namespace</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2">
<a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project%3ALanguage_policy#The_main_page"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">The main page</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project%3ALanguage_policy#Other_namespaces"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">Other namespaces</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project%3ALanguage_policy#Translate_extension"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Translate extension</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5">
<a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project%3ALanguage_policy#Language_codes"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">Language codes</span></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6"><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project%3ALanguage_policy#See_also"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">See also</span></a></li>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<h2> <span class="mw-headline" id="Help:_namespace">Help: namespace</span></h2>
<p>Within the <code>Help:</code> namespace we are building a set of <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:PD_help" title="Project:PD help">public domain help pages</a>.
The aim is to provide a basic set of help pages that may be imported
into new wikis covering the basic editing and usage instructions. These
should be translated into as many languages as possible.</p>
<ul><li>English is the main reference language, and all root pages should be named and written in English.</li><li>Other languages should be placed in an appropriately named sub-page of the English version. E.g. the French version of <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Contents" title="Help:Contents">Help:Contents</a> should be at <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Contents/fr" title="Help:Contents/fr">Help:Contents/fr</a> (not Help:Sommaire, Aide:Sommaire or Help:Sommaire/fr).</li>
<li>Language sub-pages should be named using the appropriate language code for that language (see <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project%3ALanguage_policy#Language_codes">below</a>).</li><li>Sub-pages should <i>only</i> be used for translations into other languages, not for English content (e.g. you shouldn't use <code>Table editing/example</code> - use <code>Table editing example</code> or <code>Example of table editing</code> instead).</li>
<li>If an international version of a page exists but an English version
does not, then please create a stub article for the English version as
this aids navigation.</li><li>All pages in the help namespace should be tagged with the <code>{{<a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Template:Languages" title="Template:Languages">Languages</a>}}</code> template, which automatically creates links to all available translations.</li>
</ul>
<p>This system will be compatible with the planned <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Automating_help_page_export" title="Automating help page export" class="mw-redirect">automated import/export of Help pages</a>, but may need a bit of working around to export/import non-English pages in the interim.</p>
<h2> <span class="mw-headline" id="The_main_page">The main page</span></h2>
<p>The English version of our front page is located at <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki" title="MediaWiki">MediaWiki</a>. Translated versions are located at MediaWiki/code, where code is the language code (e.g. <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki/fr" title="MediaWiki/fr">MediaWiki/fr</a>). Please see <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Main_page_templates" title="Project:Main page templates">Project:Main page templates</a> for more details about creating or editing this content.</p>
<p>Importantly, the rules about language codes (see <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project%3ALanguage_policy#Language_codes">below</a>) should be followed here as well.</p>
<h2> <span class="mw-headline" id="Other_namespaces">Other namespaces</span></h2>
<p>Apart from the Main Page, no policy has yet been decided about other
namespaces. For the time being, if you would like to create translations
for pages in other namespaces then please do so as described for the
Help: namespace, however content may be moved or deleted depending on
the policy that is eventually adopted.</p>
<p>Discussion is ongoing at <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Current_issues#Localisation_outside_the_Help:_namespace" title="Project:Current issues">Project:Current issues</a>.</p>
<p><i>Note that the rule that English content should not be placed in
sub-pages does not apply to other namespaces. This is one of the issues
that needs resolving.</i></p>
<h2> <span class="mw-headline" id="Translate_extension">Translate extension</span></h2>
<p>We're currently using the <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Translate" title="Extension:Translate">Translate extension</a>
for some pages, which uses the subpage convention. The system is
probably advisable at least for all new help and manual pages, but no
policy has been established on this yet.</p>
<ul><li>To translate: just go <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:LanguageStats" title="Special:LanguageStats">Special:LanguageStats</a> and start translating.</li><li>To administer translations: <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:PageTranslation" title="Special:PageTranslation">Special:PageTranslation</a>, <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:AggregateGroups" title="Special:AggregateGroups">Special:AggregateGroups</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>You can request a page to be added to translation by preparing it for
translation, then a translation administrator will have to enable it
(see the tutorial <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Extension:Translate/Page_translation_example" title="Special:MyLanguage/Help:Extension:Translate/Page translation example">How to prepare a page for translation</a>); otherwise, ask directly to one of the <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:ListUsers/translationadmin" title="Special:ListUsers/translationadmin">translation administrators</a> to do it.</p>
<h2> <span class="mw-headline" id="Language_codes">Language codes</span></h2>
<p>Throughout MediaWiki.org you should use the language codes specified
by the MediaWiki software when creating language-specific content (see <a class="external text" href="http://svn.wikimedia.org/svnroot/mediawiki/trunk/phase3/languages/Names.php">Names.php</a> for the full and up-to-date list).</p>
<p>Please also bear the following in mind:</p>
<ul><li>If the language code is not found in Names.php then we should not host help pages in that language.</li><li>If you want to add a language that is not present, first get it added to the software (by making a request at <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Bugzilla" title="Bugzilla">Bugzilla</a>) and only add pages here once the changes have been accepted.</li>
<li>If MediaWiki uses the 'incorrect' code for a language then you
should also (for consistency) use that incorrect code here. If you think
a code is incorrect you should discuss it on <a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Bugzilla" title="Bugzilla">Bugzilla</a>, and if this results in it being changed we will move the pages to match.</li><li>Note that some language codes in Names.php are now deprecated (e.g. <tt>zh-yue</tt> has been replaced with <tt>yue</tt>). In these cases only the most recent code should be used.</li>
</ul><p><a href="http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project%3ALanguage_policy">http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project%3ALanguage_policy</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br>
<br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************<br>