User:Geofferybard/Proposal for Elevating Quotations Standards

TO: Wiktionarians

FROM: Geof Bard

RE: Quotations - Proposed enhancements

Feb 14, 2011

Summary: Date; Regionalize; Situate & Tag Quotes (More Better)

I propose that:

(1) Wiktionary guidelines be amended to strongly encourage dates on all quotations; without them it is impossible to "date" the term or word in question. Since language is a living and evolving creature of living persons, the lack of dates seriously impairs their value.

(2)Wiktionary guidelines be amended to strongly encourage editors/writers to distinguish the region associated with the quote, de minimis, whether we are talking Castillian or Latin American Spanish; American or British English, Southern writers who write in Southern idiom should be also identified particularly when using a word which is not in its basic entry associated with the region.

(3) A third area of concern is there is seldom adequate identification of which slang subcultures words originate from. For instance, some slang is clearly associated with, in its origination, with African American Northern urban USA. Is that not the case for instance with "homeboy"?

Other terms are affiliated with Chicago where electric blues developed its own nomenclature.

(4) Fourthly, it seems that there is need for a greater array of classification templates. At this point, I will not elaborate that issue pending greater familiarity with Wiktionary culture.

Thank you in advance for your thoughtful comments

Geof Bard