The simple idea of adding Wiktionary entries from one language to another gave birth to this project. Around November 2022, while the Tyap Wiktionary was still in the Wikimedia Incubator, Marco requested that Kambai let him know when the Tyap Wiktionary (later named Swánga̱lyiatwuki) gets out of the Incubator, hoping to work together to add words of Tyap origin into the WikiWoordenboek, and possibly of Dutch origin into the Swánga̱lyiatwuki.
Fast forward to October 2024, the plan to have the project carried out was put into motion with an exchange of emails to plan what to work on or not. Marco offered to help out in creating glosses on both Wiktionaries, hoping to involve more volunteers if any show up. The following questions came to mind to help with recruiting volunteers:
1. What is the target aimed at? A few hundred glosses or tens of thousands?
2. What period to reach the target? A few weeks or many years?
3. How much time are volunteers expected to spend on the project? A few hours each month or each day? Could people volunteer to be involved intensely for just one or a few days, or are they expected to contribute regularly?
4. What knowledge should volunteers already have (about languages, about editing Wiktionaries)?
5. The working language of the project would be English.
About the languages
The Dutch language is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European family, spoken in Western Europe by about 30 million people (2021) worldwide. It is an official language of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (including Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, and Saba), Belgium, and Suriname. It is also officially recognized in organizations like the Benelux, Caribbean Community, European Union, PROSUR, and the Union of South American Nations. Like other Germanic languages, Dutch uses the Latin script and the Dutch Braille. The Dutch language has a Standard and a Dutch Sign Language form. It has four main dialect groups (Central, Flemish, Stadsfries, and West Frisian). It is being regulated by the Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch language Union) and has the ISO 639-1 code [nl].
The Tyap language is a Nenzit (Platoid) language in the Niger-Congo family spoken in West Africa by about 255,000 people (2020). It has no official status in Nigeria, where its speakers call home, and is not taught in schools. It is an endangered language, as most of its speakers tend to speak other larger languages, such as Hausa and English. Tyap has no official Standard form, but the main dialect used for Wikimedia projects is the Mabatado dialect. It also has no Sign Language. It uses the Latin script, but a new script was developed for its future writing called the Akai script. It has seven dialects (Fantswam, Gworok, Sholyio, Takad, “Mabatado” (Tyap ‘proper’), Tyecarak, and Tyuku). It has no official regulating body, but the Tyap Language Development Board plays a role in its development (especially the Mabatado dialect). Its ISO 639-3 code is [kcg].
Significance of the project
This project highlights the need for Wikimedia projects to collaborate in sharpening one another’s skills. As the contrast between the status of Dutch and Tyap, so also that of the WikiWoordenboek and Swánga̱lyiatwuki in terms of the number of entries and general outlook. The project served as a learning session for two strangers to examine each other’s language and attempt to solve a puzzle through the common understanding that both are Wiktionaries and share many similarities.
Challenges
A major challenge that has impacted this project was the availability of volunteers willing to put in quality time to see the completion of the project, both the pilot project and Part 2 of the project. Many editors seem to be overwhelmed with engagements elsewhere to give quality time to the project. For some, the project seems a bit technical to engage in, especially from the Tyap editors.
Another challenge was the missing templates in the Swánga̱lyiatwuki and the structuring of its entry details. At the beginning of the project, the session for translating to other languages in the Swánga̱lyiatwuki was still quite primary and had to be worked on. The portion dealing with the pronunciation, the hyphenation, and audio records, including the Wikimedia Commons style of naming audio files, was not in order. The botanical name for the species was also lacking, and the style for structuring entries of other language origins, like Dutch in the Swánga̱lyiatwuki, needed to be worked on.
Distance was another challenge, as there would be a need for both parties to meet at one point and discuss the way forward.
Solutions
To ensure the success of the project, at least one editor from each side had to give more to the project while finding other ways for more volunteers to come in to participate in the project. MarcoSwart put out a call for an intern on the Dutch side, and Kambai Akau at least a social media invitation for volunteer contributions.
Several templates were created in the Swánga̱lyiatwuki, like the translation, audio, and hyphenation templates, and more efforts were made towards the improvement of the general outlook of the Swánga̱lyiatwuki, as suggested by Marco in the discussion page of the project on Meta-Wiki during the pilot project, which Kambai commented on most of the time. There were also more discussions on the discussion page of the project on Meta-Wiki during the second phase of the project.
To curbing the distance, apart from the discussion page, the two camps also met virtually to speak on what had been done and what remains to be done, and how best to do them.
Results
Swánga̱lyiatwuki: As of January 1, 2025, before the pilot project began on January 11, there was only one Dutch word in the Swánga̱lyiatwuki existing as an entry, and fewer than 100 Tyap entries with Dutch translations. However, as of February 28, when the pilot project wrapped up, there were 116 entries of Dutch origin, and 193 Tyap entries with Dutch translations. Also, about 334 pages were created in the course of the pilot project.
At the end of the pilot project, Part 2 of the editing was proposed, and on May 1, 2025, it was begun. As of then, there were 116 Dutch entries in the Swánga̱lyiatwuki, and 217 Tyap entries with Dutch translations. However, at the end of this second part of the collaborative editing project, on June 30, 2025, there were 270 Dutch entries and 403 Tyap words with Dutch translations in the Swánga̱lyiatwuki. A total of about 340 pages were created in the Swánga̱lyiatwuki during this second round of editing.
WikiWoordenboek: As of January 1, 2025, there were only eight Tyap entries in the WikiWoordenboek. However, as of February 28, when the pilot project wrapped up, there were 185 entries of Tyap origin in the WikiWoordenboek.
At the beginning of the second part of the project on May 1, 2025, only 185 entries of the Tyap language existed in the WikiWoordenboek. However, there were 324 by the end of the project on June 30, 2025.
Overall, the project aimed to generate approximately 1,000 entries. However, 980 entries were created. 316 were made in the WikiWoordenboek and 664 in the Swánga̱lyiatwuki. Editors from one language wiktionary contributed to the other language wiktionary, maneuvering through the language barrier by studying repeated patterns and asking questions.
Participants: Of the eight participants who showed interest in the pilot project, about five contributed to the project. For the second part of the project, of the eight participants who showed interest, fewer than five were active throughout the course of the project.
Afterwards
At the end of this project, more entries of Dutch origin continued to be added to the Swánga̠lyiatwuki, and those of Tyap origin were added to the WikiWoordenboek. This would enable learners of both languages to understand the other language better when explained in their own language.
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