Wiktionary:Languages needing improvement

According to our criteria for inclusion, we accept all (natural) languages. Unfortunately, not every language is represented equally on Wiktionary; some languages have far more entries and more detailed information than others. This is an unfortunate consequence of the limited amount of users on Wiktionary that are familiar with those languages. After all, to be able to document all languages, we need people who are willing and able to add information about them. Of course that is quite a difficult task, but this does not mean that we don't want that to improve!

The following is a list of languages that are considered in particular need of improvement, but have few or no users that work on them. If you happen to be familiar with a language on this list, please help out by:

• Adding new entries in that language
• Adding translations into that language to English entries
• Improving existing entries with additional information such as inflected forms
• Creating templates for the language as needed

Adding languages to this list

Since all languages need improvement of some sort, including English, it may be hard to judge when a language should be added to this list. A general guideline is that if Wiktionary does not contain the necessary information to hold a basic conversation in the language or read an everyday text (such as a newspaper article), then some improvement is needed.

Most important are function words such as auxiliary verbs, prepositions, pronouns and so on. These words are frequently used, so if a significant amount of them is missing from Wiktionary this means things definitely need to be improved. Also important are words in the basic core vocabulary, which concern concepts and subjects that people regularly encounter in daily life, such as bed, eat, go, day, good, large etc.

Furthermore, words alone are not enough in most cases. To be able to use words in a language, enough grammatical information must be available to make use of it in a sensible way. This means that where applicable, entries should specify noun genders, plurals and other inflected forms, as well as usage notes to inform users of important information regarding the use of the word. Having entries for every form of a word is not strictly necessary, but still a welcome addition if nothing else.

Highly critical languages

These languages are the native everyday languages of millions of people, and in many cases the/an official or national language of one or more countries. Improving their coverage on Wiktionary is a high priority.

• Amharic (User am)
• Azerbaijani (User az)
• Belarusian (User be)
• Burmese (User my)
• Cebuano (User ceb)
• Chichewa (User ny)
• Dzongkha (User dz)
• Georgian (User ka)
• Hausa (User ha)
• Kazakh (User kk)
• Kyrgyz (User ky)
• Lao (User lo)
• Latvian (User lv)
• Malagasy (User mg)
• Malay (User ms)
• Nepali (User ne)
• Sango (User sg)
• Sinhalese (User si)
• Somali (User so)
• Swazi (User ss)
• Tagalog (User tl)
• Tigrinya (User ti)
• Turkmen (User tk)
• Uzbek (User uz)

Regional languages with significant amounts of speakers

These languages are generally not national languages, and those that are have relatively few speakers and are confined in use to a relatively small area. Often, they are spoken alongside larger and more widely spoken languages.

• Alemannic German (User gsw)
• Assamese (User as)
• Greenlandic (User kl)
• Gujarati (User gu)
• Inuktitut (User iu)
• Kannada (User kn)
• Khmer (User km)
• Limburgish (User li)
• Low German (User nds)
• Malayalam (User ml)
• Marathi (User mr)
• Odia (User or)
• Punjabi (User pa)
• Saraiki (User skr)
• Tamil (User ta)
• Telugu (User te)
• Tibetan (User bo)
• Tatar (User tt)
• Uyghur (User ug)
• Walloon (User wa)
• West Frisian (User fy)
• Ojibwe

(User oji)

Moribund or extinct languages

The languages listed here have either gone extinct, or are under severe threat of extinction. If they are still spoken, they are only marginally used, often in danger of being replaced by another language. These languages are not critical to Wiktionary as relatively few people will be looking up words in them. However, language revival efforts may be in place and Wiktionary can help with that when possible.

• Ainu (User ain)
• Classical Chinese (no category) (User lzh)
• Classical Maya (no category) (no code)
• Coptic (User cop)
• Elfdalian (no code)
• Egyptian (User egy)
• Gothic (User got)
• Klamath-Modoc (User kla)
• Middle Dutch (User dum)
• Middle High German (User gmh)
• Middle Low German (User gml)
• Middle Persian (User pal)
• North Frisian (User frr)
• Pali (User pi)
• Saterland Frisian (User frs)
• Old Dutch (User odt)
• Old Saxon (User osx)
• Old Swedish (User gmq-osw)
• Old Norse (User non)

(to be sorted)

• Interlingue (User ie)