NovaRoma:Language Policies
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This is one of the Nova Roma wiki help files.
See also special information on writing Latin.
Contents |
Namespaces
The Nova Roma Wiki will contain articles in several languages.
We organize this by placing each language in a Namespace.
In a Wiki, a Namespace is a prefix that appears at the beginning of the article title, followed by a colon. There is a default namespace as well, which contains articles that have no prefix.
This article is in the "NovaRoma:" namespace, which is used for pages that are about the site itself (rather than a part of the site); such are generally called "meta-information". There's also a "Special:" namespace, used for pages like login/logout, Recent Changes, etc.
For general articles - the kind you'll be working on most of the time - we use the namespace to indicate the language, using the standard two-letter codes. The exception is English, which has no prefix; English articles go in the default namespace.
- DE: Deutsch - DE:Main Page
- ES: Español - ES:Main Page
- FR: Français - FR:Main Page
- IT: Italiano - IT:Main Page
- LA: Latina - LA:Main Page
- PT: Português - PT:Main Page
- (no prefix) English - Main Page
Article Titles and Redirects
Same title in English and the target language
This is the case for articles with Latin titles (e.g., Lorica segmentata). Create a page with the same title but in the target namespace (e.g., DE:Lorica segmentata).
Title is translated into the target language
If the title is different from the English version (as it generally will be), then you must also put in a redirect. This is an article that acts as a pointer to another article; it sends the user automatically to another page. This redirect should be in your language's namespace (such as DE:, ES:, etc.) but use the English title of the article. The redirect article acts as an automatic "bridge" between the English article and the translated article.
- Roman Republic (in English)
- DE:Roman Republic - an "article" in the German namespace with an English title. This is the "redirect" article.
- DE:Römische Republik (in Deutsch)
A user that tries to go to DE:Roman Republic will be automatically sent to the correct place, DE:Römische Republik.
When you create the redirect ("bridge") article, you place within it a command to send the users on to the article with the correct title. This consists of the "#" symbol, followed by the word "REDIRECT", space, then the location you want to send them to in double square brackets.
- article DE:Roman Republic contains:
#REDIRECT [[DE:Römische Republik]]
Every article that you create must have one of these redirects, using the English equivalent title, but in the target language's namespace.
The reason for these extra redirects is to enable automatic linking between the equivalent pages - as described in the next section.
Another example:
- Choosing a Roman name has an inter-language link to...
- IT:Choosing a Roman name which redirects to...
- IT:Scegliere un nome romano which has an inter-language link back to...
- Choosing a Roman name (English).
Making the redirect yourself
Here is a simple procedure for making the redirect yourself, using the example above:
You want to translate Roman Republic into German, so you first create DE:Roman Republic (an "article" in the German namespace with an English title). You can do this easily if the English page already has the "LanguageBar" template (see below). Just click on the "Deutsch" link and you will see the DE:Roman Republic article and the wiki will offer to let you edit it. Start editing and enter:
#REDIRECT [[DE:Römische Republik]]
and then save the article. The redirect is now in place.
Making the redirect automatically
Here is a simple procedure that will let the wiki make the redirect for you, using the example above:
You want to translate Roman Republic into German, so you first create DE:Roman Republic (an "article" in the German namespace with an English title). You can do this easily if the English page already has the "LanguageBar" template (see below). Just click on the "Deutsch" link and you will see the DE:Roman Republic article and the wiki will offer to let you edit it. Start editing and then save the article. After you save the article, move it to DE:Römische Republik. The wiki will move your translation to the new (German) name and it will leave a redirect at DE:Roman Republic. You can now continue to work on your translation at DE:Römische Republik.
Inter-Language Links
The recommended way to link between equivalent pages is by use of the LanguageBar template. This template works correctly only if you have created redirects from the English article title to the localized article title, as described above.
A template is a fragment of Wiki code that you can invoke from within other pages. It will be replaced, when the page is displayed to the user, with whatever has been set as the contents of the template.
The LanguageBar template should be at the top of every page that exists in multiple language-namespaces. To invoke it, use the following syntax:
{{LanguageBar | english-page-name }}
Where english-page-name is the English name of the page your are editing. For example, within the page DE:Römische Republik, the following should appear:
{{LanguageBar | Roman Republic}}
This will insert the following
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The links above point to DE:Roman Republic, Roman Republic (default namespace = English), ES:Roman Republic, etc. Some of these may be red because those articles do not yet exist.
The name that's passed to the LanguageBar template following the pipe symbol is used as the article name to link to for every target language. At each of those locations, either the article or a redirect to the translated article title should exist. This automatic linking is why it is essential to create the redirects from the English titles.
You can also do this for articles in special namespaces, like this one. Note the language bar at the top of this page; the English version is NovaRoma:Language Policies, but it links to DE:NovaRoma:Language Policies, which links back to here. Just use the full name (NovaRoma:Language Policies) as the parameter you pass to the LanguageBar template; it works the same way as it does for simple titles.
Additional Info
For questions or advice, please join the NRWiki mailing list.
Marcus Octavius Germanicus(t) 13:05, 9 April 2006 (CDT)
