Spanish needs a push
Wednesday, 22. February 2006, 19:48:21
There are several sources pointing out the Spanish language as one of the most spoken languages in the world. Actual numbers vary if you take into account native speakers only or any speakers worldwide. In any case the language of Cervantes is always among the four or five most spoken languages in the world.
In spite of this, Wikipedia's Spanish version has less articles than many other versions in other languages. As a matter of fact, the Spanish version is the tenth in number of articles, according to Wikipedia's homepage, lagging behind German, Swedish, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese and Dutch. Except English, all the other languages above Spanish are not as widely spoken nowadays in the world. Except Portuguese, none of them get even close.
Clearly this criteria roughly reflects the current distribution of wealth, power and levels of development in the world. It is a reflection of Spanish's position in the Internet of today. How sad is for me that a language as beautiful and rich is so poorly represented in this wonderful free encyclopedia and in the Internet as a whole. My native language needs a push. Or better yet, our countries need a push.
In spite of this, Wikipedia's Spanish version has less articles than many other versions in other languages. As a matter of fact, the Spanish version is the tenth in number of articles, according to Wikipedia's homepage, lagging behind German, Swedish, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese and Dutch. Except English, all the other languages above Spanish are not as widely spoken nowadays in the world. Except Portuguese, none of them get even close.
Clearly this criteria roughly reflects the current distribution of wealth, power and levels of development in the world. It is a reflection of Spanish's position in the Internet of today. How sad is for me that a language as beautiful and rich is so poorly represented in this wonderful free encyclopedia and in the Internet as a whole. My native language needs a push. Or better yet, our countries need a push.
WIDGETIZE
Anonymous # 22. February 2006, 22:31
The Spanish language is beautiful and we won't even go into the music because there isn't enough room in comments to discuss how beautiful our music is. I don't know if it's that I grew up hearing this wonderful music but I find it very rich and just perfect.
I've seen the language develop here and in other States over the years. Everyone wants to lean how to speak Spanish (in the States that I've lived in) and you get paid more if you know how to speak Spanish in a lot of places. I'm surprised at what you found.
Very interesting and thanks for sharing.