User:Mzajac/Regional language vs regional topics
This is a think-tank draft for making a distinction between regional language and geographic context. A basic description of the problem and main discussion should remain at Wiktionary:Beer parlour archive/2008/May#Regional language vs regional topics. —Michael Z. 2008-05-15 00:31 z
Tagging
edit- Regional English and other languages will continue to be indicated on individual senses with regional context templates.
- Geographic context will be indicated by a new set of context templates:
{{in North America}}
,{{in the USA}}
,{{in the Canadian Prairies}}
,{{in Wales}}
.- A general-purpose
{{geographic}}
template will collect ad hoc regions.
- A general-purpose
Appearance
edit- The new geographic context templates should be clearly distinguishable from regional language templates. Proposals:
- Letterspaced small caps: in the UK
- Italic serif font: in Canada
- square brackets: [in New Zealand]
Categories
editThe regional language and geographic context tags should have mostly separate category trees, intersecting where it is logical. Here are some possible paths through the tree:
- Regional language remains within the hierarchy of language families, languages, and dialects.
- Language categories also fall within their geographical scope.
- Fundamental > *Topics > Geography > Place names > Countries > Canada > Canadian English
- Geographic context categories have their own hierarchy, also falling under geography at every level.
Documentation
edit- Templates and categories should have names and text content which makes their nature clear (e.g.
{{Canadian English}}
vs{{in Canada}}
.- Should regional language templates always include a clear attributive? UK English, British, US English, Scottish, Canadian English, Manitoban, Manitoba English, but not UK, Britain, US, Scotland, Canada, Manitoba
- Should geographic context templates always include in ...?
- Templates and categories should all carry simple documentation on their usage (facilitated with templates?), and clearly link to their counterparts. Example:
- This regional language template,
{{Scottish English}}
, is applied to terms or senses as they are used by Scottish speakers. To identify a sense with particular meaning in reference to Scotland by any speaker of English, use{{in Scotland}}
. Learn more....
- This regional language template,