Part 3: Swánga̱lyiatwuki-WikiWoordenboek Wiktionary Editing Project

As a sequel to the Swánga̱lyiatwuki-WikiWoordenboek Wiktionary Editing Projects, a Wiktionary-based collabathon began in 2025 by the editors of WikiWoordenboek and Swánga̱lyiatwuki. Part 3 of the project aimed to continue the project, meaning to add more words of the Tyap language origin to the WikiWoordenboek and more words of the Dutch language origin to the Swánga̱lyiatwuki. The project began on January 10 and lasted till February 28, 2026. Although it officially ended on February 28, this project continued to run in the background until April 30.

The project started with a virtual meeting on Saturday, 10th January 2026, with editors from the two editing teams present. An introduction was provided, and the project’s purpose was stated. About nine people were present in the meeting. Jolan Douwes, a Master student with the Centre for Linguistics of Leiden University, hired as an intern by Wikimedia Nederland to study the Tyap language and document his findings related to the language, was given the lead role by Marco P. Swart from the Dutch side, while Gwakhap Danjuma Anthony was given the role for the lead role by Kambai Akau from the Tyap side. A Telegram group was thereafter created by Kuyet Friday Musa to coordinate the project.

On Saturday, 31 January 2026, the second virtual meeting was held, with about eight participants in attendance, to discuss the way forward for the project and to explain anything that was not clear to the participants. The last meeting was held on Saturday, 28 February 2026, to close this part of the project. About five participants were in attendance. All three virtual meetings were held on Jitsi Meet between 10:00 am and 11:00 am Middle European Time (MET)/West African Time (WAT).

Significance

The project shows that in the Wiktionary ecosystem ‘larger’ languages and ‘smaller’ languages can support one another in important ways. ‘Smaller’ languages often have to overcome several hurdles at the same time.

Many ‘smaller’ languages are spoken in countries where the availability of internet and computers is not as easy. Editing Wiktionary on a mobile phone is possible, but much less efficient than using a desktop with a high-bandwidth connection.
‘Larger’ Wiktionaries are committed to the goal of describing all words of all languages in their particular language. But the availability of knowledgeable editors and resources creates a natural tendency to forget about the majority of ‘smaller’ languages. The resulting focus is by no means neutral. Most of the many publications on other languages in Dutch and Belgian libraries are the result of either economic, religious or military interests. The development of translation tools and artificial intelligence tends to deepen the divide. Working with ‘smaller’ languages is important if we are serious about our goal.

Apart from adding words to both Wiktionaries involved, this project phase also aimed to create an online resource with a free licence, describing the Tyap language. This is a way to overcome the lack of existing publications. WikiWoordenboek had cooperated with universities in the past, but having an intern to write this resource was a first.

Challenges

Just as in the last two Parts of this project, the number of participants who registered to be part of the project was less than the number of participants who actually participated. But unlike the last two projects, there were more editors in this project than in the last two. About 14 participants (excluding Friday musa, Kambai Akau, and MarcoSwart) signed up as participants in this project on the Meta-Wiki project page.

Another challenge was that on the Tyap side, many editors joined the project, but many were not following the template laid down for editing the Swánga̱lyiatwuki, despite being guided by Gwakhap. On the Dutch side, there were no challenges experienced, except the quest to understand the grammar of the Tyap language.

The Swánga̱lyiatwuki has a very small number of entries, and if the project were to go more smoothly, more entries would have to be created in it. However, the number of those who would be dedicated to learning from sample entries was really small.

Solutions

Since there was no magic way to increase the number of participants knowledgeable in the Dutch and Tyap languages, in spite of the posts on social media about the project, the project was continued with the available hands.

As for the poor quality of edits by some editors on the Tyap side, those editors were asked to stop so as not to have poorly written entries in bulk in the Swánga̱lyiatwuki. For a deeper understanding, the project discussion page serves as a point where clarification could be obtained to help both current editors and those who would come after or would want to do something similar.

Being that there were really very few Tyap editors who could use sample entries to create more entries in the Swánga̱lyiatwuki, writing descriptions of Tyap words was prioritized. With the experience from WikiWoordenboek Marco could provide many entries for Dutch words on Swánga̱lyiatwuki and Tyap words on WikiWoordenboek.

Results

Swánga̱lyiatwuki: As of January 9, 2026, before the Part 3 of the project began on January 10, there were 270 Dutch words in the Swánga̱lyiatwuki existing as an entry, and 419 Tyap entries with Dutch translations. However, at the end of this second part of the collaborative editing project, on February 28, 2026, there were 582 Dutch entries and 635 Tyap words with Dutch translations in the Swánga̱lyiatwuki. A total of about 388 pages were created in the Swánga̱lyiatwuki during this third round of editing. In addition, about 13 templates were created. Other information regarding the results of the project was documented here.

WikiWoordenboek: As of January 9, 2026, there were 324 Tyap entries in the WikiWoordenboek. However, there were about 559 by the end of the project on February 28, 2026. Other information regarding the results of the project was documented here.

Overall, the project aimed to generate approximately 1,000 entries. However, only about 947 entries were created. 559 were made in the WikiWoordenboek and 388 in the Swánga̱lyiatwuki.

Participants: Of the 17 editors who showed interest in the Part 3 of this project, only about 10 participants were present to contribute to the project.

Background project: At the end of the official closing date of the project on February 28, Jolan and Gwakhap continued to hold virtual meetings to understand the Tyap language. The results of Jolan’s findings were documented here. Observations to his findings were noted down on the discussion page.

Afterwards

The major assignment after this Part of the project is for the Tyap editors to create new Tyap entries in the Swánga̠lyiatwuki to make it easier for the Dutch contributors to create entries of Dutch origin in the WikiWoordenboek.

The creation of a description of the Tyap language enables WikiWoordenboek to create the proper templates and categories to describe many more Tyap words in the near future.