Wiktionary:Language treatment


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The distinction between languages and dialects is not clear-cut. A lect that some regard as a dialect of a certain language may be regarded as a full, separate language by others. This page contains a list of languages and their (ISO-code-having) dialects, with notes on whether or not the dialects are treated as separate languages on Wiktionary. If there is no note about the status of a particular language+dialect group, the situation is not yet regulated. If multiple dialects are treated as a single language on Wiktionary, but there is no ISO code that represents all of them, the code of one of the dialects is used as the code for the whole language, or an exceptional code is created (for more, see Languages).

For the most part, this page documents cases where Wiktionary’s treatment of lects deviates from that of the ISO/SIL, e.g. cases where we have merged lects that they have not. Cases where an ISO code has been excluded from Wiktionary altogether (typically because it was too vague to be meaningful) are also documented. Cases where the ISO/SIL itself has merged lects which they formerly granted separate codes, and we have followed suit, are not necessarily documented here.

Discussions about splitting, merging, deleting, adding or renaming lects may be archived to Language treatment/Discussions (WT:LTD). (Do not start or continue discussions on that page; do that in an appropriate community forum, such as WT:BP or WT:RFM.)

List of languages and dialects
 Colour coding:
 * : This code is treated as a language. Entries in this language are allowed.
 * : This code is not treated as a separate language. See the "Treatment" column to understand which code should be used instead. In certain cases, these codes may be permitted in etymologies (so-called "etymology-only" languages).
 * : This code represents a language family. It is not itself a language, although it may have a proto-language.
 * : The disposition of this code is complex or unclear. See the "Treatment" column.

Excluded codes
The following ISO 639-3 codes have been excluded without being subsumed into a single other code:


 * (“Bo”, “Po”, “Sorimi”) is excluded for now because its existence as a distinct language is unconfirmed and undocumented, and if it were included, a naming conflict would exist with  (discussion).
 * (“Brithenig”), a minor constructed language (see ).
 * (“Degaru/Dhekaru”), spurious according to Ethnologue (see Dhekaru); it’s a caste, not a language.
 * (“Dutton World Speedwords”), a minor constructed language (see ).
 * , called “Eastern Karnic” by the ISO, is excluded from Wiktionary because it is not clear that there is any data for this “language”, or even that it is a single real language.
 * , called “Hiberno-Scottish Gaelic” by the ISO, is treated as Irish or Scottish  according to whether the word in question is from an Irish text, a Scottish one, or both (discussion).
 * (“Gowli”), spurious according to Glottolog (see Spurious languages); it’s a caste, not a language.
 * (“Jorto”), spurious (discussion).
 * (“Luo”), an unclassified extinct language, is excluded for now because no includable content in it has been put forth, and if it were included, a naming conflict would exist with.
 * (“Mina (India)”) is excluded because it is spurious. Furthermore, if it were included, a naming conflict would exist with.
 * (“Moksela”) is extinct and unattested (see ).
 * (“Wares”), spurious (discussion).
 * (“Wakabunga”), an unclassified extinct language, is excluded for now because no includable content in it exists: the only wordlist which was labelled Wakabunga turned out to be Kalkatungu.
 * (“Yarsun”), spurious (discussion).
 * ("Balaibalan"), a minor constructed language (brief discussion).
 * (“Blissymbols”, “Blissymbolics”, “Semantography”), a minor constructed language / script (see ).
 * , the code for “No linguistic content”.