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Wikipedia and Wiktionary to save endangered languages

Wikipedia and Wiktionary to save endangered languages

  • Thematic framework: Multilingualism and Cyberspace
  • Geographical outreach: International
  • Types of project: Disseminating information

  • Beneficiary countries: all



  • Main responsible:
    Ad Huikeshoven
    Bekerstraat 17
    The Hague
    The Netherlands

Summary of the activities
The Wikimedia Foundation Inc is a non-profit organization hosting the online encyclopedia Wikipedia in over 250 languages and other multilingual projects such as Wiktionary, an online dictionary. New languages are added regularly if there are enough speakers of a language to form a viable community and audience according to Wikimedia Language proposal policy.

This project calls upon all officers employed by the U.N. or one of its subsidiaries or affiliations like UNESCO who speak a language currently not included in Wikipedia to make a request for a project in their language on this page, calls upon senior leadership to endorse and encourage their staff to join a new language community and devote a little bit of their time to get an online encyclopedia or dictionary in their language started.

From the perspective of Wikipedia all languages currently not included on Wikipedia should be considered an endangered language. The Wikimedia Foundation has the resources to host many more languages, however current volunteers involved (and there are millions of volunteers) aren't (native) speakers of languages currently not included.

Main partners
Wikimedia Foundation Inc. has office in San Francisco

  • Start Date: 08-04-2008   End Date: 07-04-2013