Maya Indigenous Language Added to Wikipedia Mexico The Yucatan Times
go to original July 25, 2015

Worldfocus special correspondent Lynn Sherr and producer Megan Thompson highlight Mexico's attempt to preserve the past by speaking ancient languages in the present tense. (worldfocusonline)

Adding to its editions in 288 different languages, Wikipedia will expand its availability in Mexican indigenous languages, with new editions in Maya and Mixtec. This would be an addition to its current edition available in Nahuatl.

Ivan Martinez, president of Wikimedia Mexico, told The Associated Press that his association’s mission is to provide people with access to knowledge, and it has to accomplish this in their own language.

Wikipedia currently has an edition in Nahuatl, with approximately 10,000 articles. It also features the option to read them in ancient and modern Nahuatl, as many academics often learn ancient Nahuatl, while native speakers use the modern version.

Editions in indigenous languages emerge at the initiative of users, said Martinez.

“When Mexico Wikimedia was founded, there was already publishing in Nahuatl,” Martinez said of the edition created in 2009. “These tools are made by people themselves and do not require any authorization. Like Wikipedia itself, no one needed to ask permission to create and develop it.”

For now, the Maya edition, currently developed with communities of Yucatán, has about 1,000 articles prepared. The Mixtec edition has 100 articles and is being developed with communities in the state of Oaxaca. This language presents a particular challenge because it has around 81 linguistic variations.

Read the rest at The Yucatan Times

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!