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Language code request: Wolastoqey for monolingual text
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Description

Feature summary:
I would like a language code to be created for an Indigenous language: Wolastoqey (colonially known as Malecite-Passamaquoddy). The ISO 693-3 language code is pqm. Its Wikidata item is Q3183144. The script is latin alphabet.

This Indigenous language is spoken in New Brunswick, in Quebec and in Maine. It is said to be "severally endangered" but the language is undergoing a revival thanks to teaching in schools and at the community level, as well as to the creative output of notable artists such as Jeremy Dutcher and Dave Jenniss.

Use case(s):
My colleagues and I want to describe indigenous works in Wolastoqey, including the award-winning album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa. We need this language code for title (P1476) statements.

Benefits:
The Canadian Association for the Performing Arts and the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance have been populating data about Indigenous artists and their works. We are doing our best to portray Wikidata as an inclusive and welcoming knowledge base, and we encourage Indigenous artists and cultural workers to exercise ownership and control about items describing them, their organizations and their works. A missing language code can however send the opposite message: that Wikidata is not for the Indigenous performing arts community. I would very much like to be able to reply playwright and stage director Dave Jenniss that the missing language code for the Wolastoqey was added.

Event Timeline

Anoop changed the subtype of this task from "Feature Request" to "Task".Feb 6 2023, 11:29 AM

I was excited to see this feature request being moved into a "task". However, nothing happened with it for the last three weeks. Is this normal?

I was excited to see this feature request being moved into a "task". However, nothing happened with it for the last three weeks. Is this normal?

There is a backlog of requests going back nearly a year (see for example T308062). It is unknown when new language codes will be added again

Lydia_Pintscher renamed this task from Language code request: Wolastoqey to Language code request: Wolastoqey for monolingual text.Mar 21 2023, 8:55 AM

Change 909717 had a related patch set uploaded (by Michael Große; author: Michael Große):

[mediawiki/extensions/Wikibase@master] Add monolingual text language codes `bzs` and `pqm`

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/909717

Change 909717 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/Wikibase@master] Add monolingual text language codes `bzs` and `pqm`

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/909717

This is all up and working for me.

As we display the languages as they are called in their native language e.g. Deutsch instead of German, could the name of the language please be updated to Wolastoqey instead of the colonial Malecite-Passamaquoddy

As we display the languages as they are called in their native language e.g. Deutsch instead of German,

We display names in the interface language.

We display names in the interface language.

I m not sure what is meant by "display" in the last two comments. Are we talking about the display of item labels? If so, then I would agree that the display of the native name in the English interface would be desirable. None of the Indigenous artists I reach out to in order to validate their identity have user account. Consequently, they see labels displaying colonial names in English and this is disincentive for them to want to engage with Wikidata. I acknowledge this is not a forum to discuss naming policies, but I had to mention this nonetheless.

It looks like we are pulling this from CLDR and they have it as Malecite-Passamaquoddy that's why it's coming up this way. To make the update to Wolastoqey you may have to take up this conversation with them.

I will let you know if I find a link to help point you in the right direction.

Arian_Bozorg claimed this task.

Sincere thanks to all contributors to this task!!! I am now able to state the language of Wəlastəkwey works in Wikidata. I will consult with the People to determine what appropriate and respectful name can be given to the language name in English.