The March update was positive, so let’s see how the various African-language Wikipedias have progressed since then. As always, this measures the number of articles, which is an imperfect metric, but it’s interesting to follow the trends.
African Language Wikipedias
Language | 11/2/2011 | 9/5/2013 | 26/6/2015 | 5/3/2016 | 24/11/2016 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Malagasy | 3,806 | 45,361 | 79,329 | 81,240 | 82,799 |
Afrikaans | 17,002 | 26,752 | 35,856 | 39,065 | 42,732 |
Swahili | 21,244 | 25,265 | 29,127 | 32,565 | 34,613 |
Yoruba | 12,174 | 30,585 | 31,068 | 31,172 | 31,483 | Egyptian Arabic | 10,379 | 14,192 | 14,839 | 15,959 |
Amharic | 6,738 | 12,360 | 12,950 | 13,031 | 13,279 |
Northern Sotho | 557 | 685 | 1,000 | 2,830 | 7,605 |
Somali | 1,639 | 2,757 | 3,446 | 3,878 | 4,322 |
Kabyle | 1,503 | 2,296 | 2,643 | 2,847 | |
Lingala | 1,394 | 2,025 | 2,062 | 2,131 | 2,777 |
Shona | 1,421 | 2,321 | 2,459 | 2,638 | |
Kinyarwanda | 1,817 | 1,780 | 1,785 | 1,799 | |
Hausa | – | – | 1,345 | 1,360 | 1,400 |
Igbo | – | – | 1,019 | 1,112 | 1,284 |
Kongo | – | – | – | 1,122 | 1,173 |
Luganda | – | – | – | – | 1,082 |
Wolof | 1,116 | 1,161 | 1,023 | 1,044 | 1,058 |
Afrikaans continues to grow the steadily, and recently celebrated its 15th birthday. The quality of articles is high, and it’s starting to get more media attention. Which also means dealing with the kind of responses that the English Wikipedia has moved on from, such as but anyone can edit it, how can we trust it. It’s good to see the solid Afrikaans community continuing their impressive work.
The Afrikaans Wikipedia’s 15th birthday celebration in Cape Town
There’s a new edition to the 1000 club this time. Welcome Luganda, leapfrogging Wolof, which has mostly stalled since achieving the milestone
Most of the languages have continued to grow as per their previous tends, but yet again Northern Sotho is an exception, and showed the fastet growth over this period. Why is it doing so well? The overused Margaret Mead quote Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. perhaps? It’s disputed whether she actually said it, but moving on, just how small are we talking about? In the case of Northern Sotho, there are two main champions. User:Mohau, who has single-handedly created a whopping 4916 of them, and User:Aliwal2012, who I mentioned in the March update, has created 2958 articles. These two editors are an inspiration!
South African Language Wikipedias
Language | 19/11/2011 | 9/5/2013 | 26/6/2015 | 5/3/2016 | 24/11/2016 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Afrikaans | 20,042 | 26,754 | 35,856 | 39,065 | 42,732 |
Northern Sotho | 557 | 685 | 1,000 | 2,830 | 7,605 |
Zulu | 256 | 579 | 683 | 742 | 777 |
Tswana | 240 | 495 | 503 | 538 | 615 |
Xhosa | 125 | 148 | 356 | 473 | 576 |
Swati | 359 | 364 | 410 | 412 | 419 |
Tsonga | 192 | 240 | 266 | 352 | 390 |
Sotho | 132 | 188 | 223 | 299 | 341 |
Venda | 193 | 204 | 151 | 228 | 238 |
Ndebele (incubator) | – | – | – | 12 | 12 |
Besides Afrikaans and Northern Sotho, none of the languages are showing substantial progress, but all are showing signs of life, except for Ndebele, which has stalled in the incubator. As South Africa’s smallest official language, it most reflects the struggles of many of South Africa’s languages, which while official on paper, receive little to no real support.
But there’s no need to wait for others. Hopefully the Northern Sotho example has inspired you. All it takes is sitting down and editing!
Picture from Wikimedia Commons.
Related articles
- March 2016 African language Wikipedia update
- June 2015 African language Wikipedia update
- October 2014 African language Wikipedia and Wiktionary update
- June 2014 African Wikipedia and Wiktionary update
- May 2013 African language Wikipedia update
- November African language Wikipedia update: Afrikaans passes Swahili
- April 2012 African language Wikipedia update
- Northern Sotho Wikipedia now an official project, Afrikaans reaches 20 000 articles
- African language Wiktionary update
- African language Wikipedia update
- Wolof Wikipedia reaches 1000 articles
- Swahili Wikipedia now the largest African-language Wikipedia
- The state of Wikimedia projects in South African and Africa – Dec 2008
- The South African Wikimedia communities
- Venda Wikipedia Progress
- First Wikipedia Academy in Africa
- Wikipedia Week
- Afrikaans Wikipedia hits 5000 articles