[Jantima]

* http://dmoz.org/World/Sicilianu/ - language spoken in Southern Italy, island of Sicily ( http://dmoz.org/Regi...Regions/Sicily/ ) by ~5 millions of people. The category now has 53 sites listed and has 3 active editors.

First of all, I'm Italian, so I know what I'm talking about.

This category is listing a local dialect, not a language. It's something really inappropriate. In Italy there is a dialect, almost for every region, so why only the siciliano (Sicilianu) should be listed in World/ ?

It shouldn't.

I suggest to remove the category and to move the sites listed there into some other like in http://www.dmoz.org/...Italia/Sicilia/

Maybe creating a sub-section for sites with text in "siciliano dialect".

I would love to come back to help DMOZ, I'm just waiting for my reinstate submission to be evaluated.

[photofox]

Your request for reinstatement was denied, but I will forward your comments about World/Sicilianu/ to the right people.

Thanks.

[netjim]

I may not be the right person but if ISO says it is a separate language, that's good enough for me.

http://www.sil.org/i...tion.asp?id=scn

[Jantima]

netjim said:

I may not be the right person but if ISO says it is a separate language, that's good enough for me.

http://www.sil.org/i...tion.asp?id=scn

I'm not surprised that they managed to get it in there.
It is still very ridiculus.

[windharp]

Actually, as long as a dialect has enough websites available, and we have editors who are able to edit in the given dialect, we will create a category for it it in our World/ section.

So from our point of view there is no problem with Sicilianu being just a dialect. I would not be surprised if you find more non-languages in Test/World/ which is where we have the languages not currently strong enough to be published.

[nea]

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I'm not surprised that they managed to get it in there.

On the contrary, the International Standards Organization are pretty rigorous about what they accept as individual languages. And as windharp says, it's somewhat beside the point anyway.

[Jantima]

Thanks everybody for your clarifications!
My feeling was that dialects would have find a better category as a sub category of the main language category.

I have been in Sicily for a long time and I have a lot of friends there. They speak Italian, at school they teach italian and they speak in italian, magazines and tv are in Italian. The dialect is used especially from senior people. Younger people use it for fun, since it sounds funny, like gangsters in movies. It is a particular variation of Italian.

I really see the valor of keeping the culture alive and everything.

But I also see the need of keeping DMOZ categories well sorted.
Imagine having all dialects, of every language, all listed in the world main page...

[spectregunner]

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Imagine having all dialects, of every language, all listed in the world main page...

Yes, I can imagine that, and it would be so very very wonderful.

I hope we get to that point sometime in my lifetime.

[Jantima]

You know, I really see your point, having all the dialects and a good repository of websites documenting the language would be a priceless archive.
But in my opinion they would end up being so many that there would be the need to sort them under the main language they belong to. That's the whole point of having categories and subcategories.

Anyway when I first noticed that category I realized how is the only one from many italian dialect that is listed there. That's why I felt there was something wrong. I hope you see my point.

[spectregunner]

I do. I really do. And to prove it, I have a challenge.

Help us find website in other dialects and submit them to the directory. We will welcome the help, and I can guarantee that you'll feel good about having done your part to help.

[mauri]

Jantima said:

Anyway when I first noticed that category I realized how is the only one from many italian dialect that is listed there.

See also World/Sardu/ :)

[Jantima]

Is there a prize for the challenge?

Thanks mauri, I'll check it out, didn't notice before!