Misplaced Pages

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Dutch. (August 2012) Click for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Misplaced Pages. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 268 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Dutch Misplaced Pages article at ]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|nl|Nedersaksische Misplaced Pages}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Misplaced Pages:Translation.

The Neadersassiske Misplaced Pages, the Dutch Low Saxon edition of Misplaced Pages, was started on 24 March 2006. It collects articles written in any Low German dialect indigenous to the Netherlands, as well as a small number of articles in varieties of Low German from Germany. As of January 2025, this edition has about 8,000 articles. Among other features, there are spoken articles, "showcased" articles and provincial portals.

The Dutch Low Saxon Misplaced Pages has been cited in the Dutch press, and Low Saxon institutes in the Netherlands have noted it and contributed to it.

Characteristics

Dutch Low Saxon has traditionally been an oral set of dialects exclusively, with a modest literary tradition existing since the 19th century. Given that the vast majority of speakers never write in the language, the fairly sizeable number of speakers is not a good indicator of the potential for attracting contributors to the Dutch Low Saxon Misplaced Pages. A handful of contributors, with little variation over the years, have sustained this edition of Misplaced Pages since its inception, also staying on top of the vandalism which, although low-key, occurs with some regularity.

As a snapshot indicator, of the thirty-one active users listed for the Dutch Low Saxon Misplaced Pages as per 11 November 2021, twenty-one users made up to two edits in the preceding thirty days. Only three editors wrote any Low Saxon content, the other users being human editors or bots whose contributions were maintenance-oriented, such as fixing or updating links. The scarcity of committed writers has remained characteristic in spite of several attempts to boost their number, for instance through appeals on radio shows to which individual contributors have been invited, or appeals on the Dutch Misplaced Pages.

Many of the articles, for instance on Dutch Low Saxon writers and on features of Low Saxon language and culture, do not exist in any other edition of Misplaced Pages. Existing illustrations on Wikimedia Commons are usually linked to illustrate articles. According to the list of Wikipedias, the Dutch Low Saxon Misplaced Pages has a relatively large number of edits and images and above-average article depth for Wikipedias that have between 1,000 and 9,999 articles (depth of 23 compared to a mode of 8, a median of 11 and a mean of 18). Almost all substantive contributors to the Dutch Low Saxon Misplaced Pages have been male, which seems to reflect a known trend on the larger Wikipedias.

History

The Dutch Low Saxon Misplaced Pages was preceded by three years by a Low German Misplaced Pages [nds] (the Plattdüütsch Misplaced Pages), which was set up in April 2003. The Low German dialects, which are not standardised, stretch from all of Northern Germany to the Northeast Netherlands. In practice, however, the Plattdüütsch Misplaced Pages was a German undertaking, following German-based spelling conventions. This spelling, combined with the growing divide since modern times between Dutch and German plat(t) due to the influence of the Dutch and German standard languages respectively, left a gap to be filled.

The eventual creation of a Dutch Low Saxon Misplaced Pages was delayed for months due to a debate on whether this collection of dialects – recognised and protected by the Dutch government in the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages – merited their own Misplaced Pages. Proponents made the case that the Dutch varieties are too different from the German ones, at least in writing, to be gathered under the same roof. Some vocal opposition centred on the question of whether the often rather regionally distinct Low Saxon dialects spoken in the Netherlands could be taken as a whole and accommodated within one Misplaced Pages. The same countrywide grouping, however, had been opted for in the case of the Plattdüütsch Misplaced Pages (see Meta-Wiki).

Throughout its existence, the number of structural contributors to the Dutch Low Saxon Misplaced Pages has remained low, with active and virtually fallow periods alternating. Most of the structural contributors have administrator rights. The frequency of vandalism – creation of nonsense articles, removal of content, disparaging remarks, 'correction' of Saxon to Dutch – has varied, it sometimes being a daily occurrence and at other times occurring little. Vandalism is normally remedied within the day, often within hours or minutes. A particular feature of vandalism on this Misplaced Pages edition in a low-prestige language that, by and large, is no longer spoken by young people is that it often pokes fun at the language itself.

Accommodation of the various dialects

Once created, the Dutch Low Saxon Misplaced Pages took off well, with arrangements being made to accommodate the dialect subgroups and their different spelling conventions (there are several established spelling systems). Each contributor can write in their own dialect, categorizing an article in accordance with the dialect used. If the article is a stub, another contributor can expand it and adapt it to their own dialect. If the article is longer, a further contributor using a different dialect will ask for their alterations to be rendered into the original dialect.

Another feature is that many articles on animals, plants, objects and activities include an overview of what is often a plethora of local names, differing per region and even per town.

See also

• Dutch Misplaced Pages

References

1. Yvet Maassen. "Martin en zijn Twentse passie op Misplaced Pages: 'Het is deels activisme, taal mag niet worden vergeten'". Tubantia. DPG Media B.V. Archived from the original on 11 November 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
2. Roel Lutkenhaus. "Misplaced Pages kuiert in het Twents". Tubantia. DPG Media B.V. Archived from the original on 11 November 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
3. "Urk prijkt op Misplaced Pages in eigen streektaal". de Stentor (in Dutch). 1 May 2007. Archived from the original on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 26 October 2007.
4. Article from Stellingwarfs foundation Stellingwerfs Eigen (pdf, Low Saxon) Archived 2008-02-16 at the Wayback Machine
5. Mention by the Drèents foundation Drentse Taol (Low Saxon) Archived 2007-10-09 at the Wayback Machine
6. "List of Wikipedias". Meta-Wiki. Wikimedia Foundation. Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
7. "Aktive gebrukers". Dutch Low Saxon Misplaced Pages. Wikimedia Foundation. Archived from the original on 27 October 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
8. "List of Wikipedias (retrieved 26 October 2007)". Archived from the original on 15 August 2014. Retrieved 26 October 2007.
9. Ford, Heather; Wajcman, Judy (August 2017). "'Anyone can edit', not everyone does: Misplaced Pages's infrastructure and the gender gap". Social Studies of Science. 47 (4): 511–527. doi:10.1177/0306312717692172. JSTOR 44652520. PMID 28791929. Archived from the original on 12 May 2023. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
10. For instance the Drentse spelling Archived 2007-12-18 at the Wayback Machine, approved by the Provincial States of Drenthe. Several other spelling systems are backed by regional institutions which often subsidise publications in Low Saxon.

External links

• (Dutch Low Saxon) Dutch Low Saxon Misplaced Pages
• (Dutch Low Saxon) Dutch Low Saxon Misplaced Pages mobile version (Homepage not yet configured)

• Wikipedias in Germanic languages
• Internet properties established in 2006
• Dutch-language encyclopedias
• Dutch Low Saxon