Quality Boost for Northern Sámi
Wikipedia is built and maintained by volunteers, allowing readers to access knowledge in their own language. Now, not only the encyclopedic content but also most of the user interface is available in Northern Sámi. Enthusiasts and hired professionals have translated, proofread, and discussed their way to quality language.
In 2023, Northern Sámi Wikipedia had 2,136,000 pageviews from human traffic – people using the encyclopedia. Wikipedia texts should be user-friendly and easy to understand, but behind the scenes, terminology for technology and functions also needs to be correct. Previously, this terminology was a mix of English, Norwegian, and Northern Sámi, but for the past year and a half, innovative language work has been underway. You can’t always find established terms in minority languages, but now, for example, it’s baked into Wikipedia that “password-based authentication” can be called “beassansátnevuođđuduvvon autentiseren” in Northern Sámi!
Large Volume
The work has been time-consuming, and Wikimedia Norge, as project lead, has coordinated the collaboration between volunteer encyclopedia contributors, a reference group, and hired translators and proofreaders. A total of 65,500 words have been translated into Northern Sámi. The effort followed two tracks: both the MediaWiki software and the Wikipedia apps for Android and iOS have been translated. At the same time, these systems are constantly being developed and expanded, so during the project period, new text strings have emerged that will also need to be translated. Fortunately, now that the core of the systems are translated and quality assured, it’s manageable for volunteers to translate additions. Wikimedia Norge is continuously working to recruit volunteer Wikipedia editors and translators from Northern Sámi communities.
Financial Support
Wikimedia Norge has invested money and staff time in this work, as part of our initiative to make Sámi content available online during the UN International Decade of Indigenous Languages. However, the major effort to translate Wikimedia software and apps would not have been possible without financial support from the NUUG Foundation and the Sámi Parliament. NUUG Foundation provided NOK 200,000 for the translation of MediaWiki. This software is open and free, meaning that anyone wanting to build a Northern Sámi website – whether commercial or non-profit – can benefit from the translation work done. NOK 100,000 from the Sámi Parliament was earmarked for work on the Wikipedia apps for Android and iOS. More and more Wikipedia traffic comes via tablets and mobile devices, so it’s crucial that the user interface is accessible in Northern Sámi. These generous contributions have enabled important language work!
Available to All
All of the Northern Sámi translations are freely available via Translatewiki. They can be exported and used in new contexts, and our reference group is collaborating with Sámi Termwiki, published by Sámi Giellagáldu.
Everyone should be able to contribute to and benefit from the collaborative knowledge effort on Wikipedia, and now Northern Sámi speakers can enjoy a more consistent user experience. Wikimedia Norge looks forward to promoting this further and is stepping up efforts to recruit volunteers for content production in Northern Sámi.
Category: News, Northern Sami Wikipedia, Sámi knowledge