Talk:Wikisource

Explanation of this page

This Wikisource page provides translations of the project's name and slogan ("Wikisource — The Free Library") for all languages in which Wikisource is available (whether as a separate subdomain or as a local project at this wiki). It lists each of the various language projects by its language code (usually two letters), the name of its language (as written in that language), the word "Wikisource" in that language, and the slogan "The Free Library" translated into that language.

The list is designed to be as language-neutral as possible (thus the use of icons).

An asterisk (*) precedes the language-code for each language that operates at this wiki, rather than at a language-specific wiki of its own. Sorting the chart by the first column allows the user to easily view the languages at this wiki separately from the languages at other wikis.

This page supplements the Wikisource Main Page by providing "The Free Library" in all languages, rather than in just the ten largest languages (which are featured on the Main Page). It further supplements the Main Page by providing localizations of the word "Wikisource" as well.

Notes on translations of "Wikisource—The Free Library"

de:

"Die freie Quellensammlung" translates to English as: "The Free Source Collection".

he:

The Hebrew name for "Wikisource" (ויקיטקסט) transliterates as Vikitext. This is for the following reasons:

• There is no "W" sound in modern spoken Hebrew, but the letter "ו" (Vav or historically waw) is nevertheless considered the proper transcription of "W" for historical reasons, as in some other languages.
• "Source" has no meaning in modern Hebrew, plus is is difficult to spell in written Hebrew (where vowels must be inferred). It is therefore likely to be misread, possibly as sores, which has negative connotations.
• "Text" is a common term in modern spoken Hebrew, while "source" has no meaning in the language. Arguably, "text" describes this project better than "source." Several other languages have also incorporated variants of the word "text" into the local language name for Wikisource.
• One of the initial suggestions for the local Hebrew name used makor, the Hebrew translation for "source," thus giving Vikimakor (ויקימקור). This and Vikitext were the two main contenders when the project began. The early contributors favored the latter, Vikitext, and the consensus on this has held.

mk:

After receiving the notification on mk Wiki, I now changed the desrciption of mk Wikisource as it stands there. --B. Jankuloski 09:02, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

pl:

Hello, I've changed Polish translation. The word "otwarta" (female form for adjective "otwarty") doesn't mean "free", it means "open". Dodek, 83.24.234.226 15:30, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

pt:

Portuguese Wikisource is about to have a vote on whether or keep the project name in the default English term, or change it to a Portuguese variant.

vo:

I've just corrected a little problem in the Volapük translation: it should be Vükifonät, not Vükifon. Fon means source in the literal sense of a water source; a 'metaphorical' source of texts or inspiration is a fonät. (It was my mistake -- sorry about that!) --Smeira 08:46, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

yi:

Project name: The Yiddish name transliterates as Vikibibliyatek, meaning "Wiki-library". This is similar to several other languages that have also created local names names for "Wikisource" using translations of the word "library" that derive from Latin "bibliothēca" or Greek "βιβλιοθήκη" (vivliothíki). Russian and Ukrainian, for instance, do so by using an abbreviated "teka" at the end of the project name.

Chart

If someone could create a convenient chart for this info that would be great. Three columns:

• language code
• "Wikisource"
• Slogan (e.g. "The Free Library") Dovi 06:05, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Done. :-) Dovi 09:19, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Partial protection

Partially protected (from anonymous users). Dovi 10:32, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

Immediately removed it. Dovi 08:58, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Page-name formatting: "Wikisource"

The automatic page name ("Wikisource") has been removed through a change to MediaWiki:Monobook.css.

Rationale:

• The page-name is entirely redundant for this page.
• It provides a smoother experience clicking back-and-forth from here to the Main Page. (The page no longer "jumps".)

I hope this improves the aesthetics of the page. Dovi 19:13, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Wikisource, Wikisource:Wikisource, or Wikisource:Slogans

Moved here from Scriptorium.

When I saw Wikisource and Wikisource:Wikisource with cut-and-paste edits while the content would look like user-edited project page rather than source text, I decided to merge Wikisource into Wikisource:Wikisource. As Dovi has a different opinion at my talk page, I would like to ask the community which one the main page name should be. Wikisource, Wikisource:Wikisource, or Wikisource:Slogans? The first one is in the article namespace. The other two are in the project page namespace.--Jusjih 20:20, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

I did never mind about the name or project namespaces, but I understand Jusjih's arguments. Nevertheless, the title Wikisource:Wikisource is not quite nice indeed and causes ugly links. When we change it so I would like to see there something like Wikisource:Multilingual project (better than Slogans I think). -jkb- 07:13, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

I cite here what I wrote on Jusjih's talk page: "It would be much more aesthetic to keep the page at Wikisource. It is no more of a project page than the Main Page, which is also not in the project namespace. Plus this will create ugly redirects."

"Furthermore, in principle the page is about a text, namely a single sentence in many languages. True, that sentence is describes Wikisource, but it is arguably a notable text nonetheless."

The problem with things like Wikisource:Slogans or Wikisource:Multilingual project is that the page is entirely and purposefully designed to be language-neutral, not English in its title or its content. It even has icons to replace English words in the chart. I argue that this is a special case, and may be considered a text anyways. Dovi 06:00, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Dovi, OK, I guess you are right. -jkbx- 12:16, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

If more users prefer Wikisource as the main page, I can accept it as an unique case, though it does not mean that all user-edited lists should be in the article namespace. If no significant comments are received here, I am willing to move back after finishing the page history merge.--Jusjih 20:40, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Done the compromise by moving backward with merged edit history.--Jusjih 22:57, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Dovi 07:38, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

cgr is free

So I have used that description for Montenegrin. See en:ISO 639:c. -- Bugoslav 19:08, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

List at Wikidata

There is now a list at d:Wikidata:Wikisource/Lists/language editions. It includes some of the information from the table. --Jura1 (talk) 13:50, 14 June 2016 (UTC)

delete or not

@Candalua:, see here, -jkb- (talk) 11:21, 17 January 2021 (UTC)

Add Javanese and Balinese to the list

The projects were created in 2021. Bennylin (talk) 16:04, 25 July 2023 (UTC)