 | |
| Type of site | Internet encyclopedia project |
|---|---|
| Available in | Egyptian Arabic (Articles are written mainly using the Arabic alphabet but a few are written using the Latin alphabet) |
| Owner | Wikimedia Foundation |
| URL | arz |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | 24 November 2008; 16 years ago (2008-11-24) |
| Content license | Creative Commons Attribution/ Share-Alike 4.0 (most text also dual-licensed under GFDL) Media licensing varies |
The Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages (Egyptian Arabic: ويكيبيديا مصرى [wikiˈbedjæ ˈmɑsˤɾi, wikiˈpidjæ]) is the Egyptian Arabic version of Misplaced Pages, a free, open-content encyclopedia. This Misplaced Pages primarily acts as an alternative to the Arabic Misplaced Pages in favor of speakers of the Egyptian dialect. Until 2020, it was the only Misplaced Pages written in a localised dialect of Arabic. The second one is Moroccan Misplaced Pages, which was approved and created in July 2020.
This edition of Misplaced Pages has 1,626,113 articles and 253,237 registered users, including 8 administrators.
In December 2022, it was the third most visited language Misplaced Pages in Egypt with 2 million page views. It ranked below the Arabic Misplaced Pages (43 million) and the English Misplaced Pages (18 million).
History
The Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages was proposed on 30 March 2008 and started as a developing project on 2 April 2008 in the Wikimedia Incubator. A Wikipedian with the username Ghaly was the founder of the Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages. Ivan Panović, the author of "The Beginnings of Misplaced Pages Masry", described Ghaly as the spiritus movens of the Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages. Florence Devouard, the former president of the Wikimedia Foundation, stated that the foundation wanted Wikipedians to participate in their native languages.
The proposal was accepted in July 2008, and the announcement was made on the first day of Wikimania 2008 in Alexandria. On 24 November 2008, the Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages was officially launched, and the Incubator articles were transferred to the new domain.
In 2009, the project had 4,000 articles, and Wikipedians participating came from within and outside Egypt. By 2010 the Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages had almost 6,000 articles. That year, Panović wrote that "The number of active contributors is still rather small, yet their entries seem to be growing." At the time many of the articles were very short articles, or "stubs". Panović wrote that editors of the Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages had a tendency of creating new articles "just for the sake of increasing their number in hopes of expanding them later."
As of September 2018, 60% of Misplaced Pages views in Egypt were directed at Arabic Misplaced Pages, 33% to English Misplaced Pages, 3% to Russian Misplaced Pages and 2% to Egyptian Arabic. About 35% of Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages views come from Egypt, about 11% from the United States and Saudi Arabia, and about 5% from Morocco, Algeria and Iraq.
Origin
The origin of the proposal for the Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages is based on the active interest of some Egyptian Wikipedians in contributing articles, especially on the Arabic Misplaced Pages, as they constitute large group of the serious contributors in that Misplaced Pages.
The idea behind the creation of the Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages is to have an encyclopedia that is written in the language that Egyptians use in their everyday lives. It is hoped this will be much easier for Egyptians to read and encourage more Egyptians to contribute to Misplaced Pages.
Nabulssi-Masełbas highlights the advocacy for Egyptian linguistic separatism by editors of the Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages. These editors are part of a larger network actively promoting the notion that Egyptian is not merely a dialect of Arabic but rather a distinct language deserving official recognition.
Panović stated that "it is clear that Masry Wikipedians are the proponents of Egyptian territorial nationalism of a kind that sets itself apart from Arab or Islamic nationalism, seeking to carve out a specifically Egyptian identity" and he argued that therefore there was an "ease" in which the Egyptian Arabic Wikipedians "seem to embrace and promote some radical and even erroneous ideas about language." Ghaly is a Christian, and Panović stated that "judging by their contributions and/or user pages" several of those involved are also Christian; Panović stated that minority groups tend to be more active in identity politics.
Development
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) classification of Egyptian Arabic under the language code arz is one of the arguments used by Egyptian Arabic Wikipedians for considering Masry an independent language. The project uses the Cairene-style Egyptian Arabic.
Ghaly, in the Wikimedia Foundation proposal page for the Egyptian Misplaced Pages, stated that his view of the Masry Misplaced Pages was that it would be "written in layperson terms and a mixture between Egyptian slang and simple Arabic", conveying "the information to speakers of Egyptian Arabic in a way similar to what Misplaced Pages Simple English is doing currently in comparison to Misplaced Pages English." In response some Wikipedians criticized the proposal stating that it would be a Simple Arabic Misplaced Pages. Ghaly responded, arguing that he did not intend to actually start a simple Arabic Misplaced Pages.
As of August 2019, the Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages has over 20,000 articles and continues to grow. In addition, there is a project to develop an Egyptian Arabic Wiktionary, which is in the development phase as a project on Wikimedia incubator. On 28 July 2020 Misplaced Pages Masry became the eighteenth Misplaced Pages to have more than one million articles.
Reaction
The Egyptian variant of Misplaced Pages was controversially received; supporters pointed to the number of Wikipedias written in regional languages and argued that Egyptian Arabic was a widely spoken variant of Arabic, while opponents perceived the creation of the Egyptian-language Misplaced Pages as an attack on the Arabic Misplaced Pages and argued that Standard Arabic was the standard language for media, and the use of a regional-language version was anachronistic.
The Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages has been subject to controversy from the start, causing arguments between supporters and opponents. There have been lengthy discussions before the approval of the proposal. Also, there were discussions on other websites apart from meta.wikimedia. This was also based on the differences in definition of a language and a dialect. This is a result of diglossia in Egypt, where the written language is a different dialect than the language used daily, which is not frequently written, although a certain amount of literature (particularly plays and poetry) exists written in the Egyptian dialect in Egypt. As the project developed it was seen occasionally as a manifestation of triglossia of standard Arabic, vernaculars, and a western language in the Arabic section of the cyberspace
Support
Amira Samir of the Al-Ahram Hebdo reported that some Egyptians on the internet did not have a problem with the project, arguing that the Wikimedia Foundation was an independent body and therefore the Egyptian government could not force the inclusion or exclusion of any particular dialect.
Opposition
Discussions and criticism has occurred in some Facebook groups and several blogs and forums. Samir stated that many online users believed that the Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages was an attack on the Arabic language. The primary criticism of the Misplaced Pages Masry involves the belief that a "degradation" of Arabic occurred when someone writes in a dialect. Panović argues that the criticism is "grounded in folk belief about language" and therefore it is a "futile task" to examine the arguments from a linguistic point of view. According to Panović, many of the critics took note that many involved with the Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages were Christian and that they perceived the project to be antagonistic against the Arab identity and Islam. Panović wrote that "It almost goes without saying there are also those who see in Misplaced Pages Masry yet another Jewish plot." Others see it as an attempt to divide the Arabs by emphasizing dialects. According to Samir, some critics argued that the Egyptian Arabic language has a lack of rules and variations of meanings in words, and so it is an unsuitable language for an encyclopedia.
Opposition to this version of Misplaced Pages has been strong during the proposal stage; opposition continued after the project officially launched including campaigns on Facebook. Some of these campaigns encouraged users to vandalize the Egyptian Misplaced Pages. The main point which the opposition focuses on is that Egyptian Arabic is neither a language, nor used by all Egyptians, suggesting that the effort should be directed to development of Arabic Misplaced Pages.
See also
Notes
- Misplaced Pages Masry rules of writing
- ^ Samir, Amira (December 2009). "Le masri est-il contre l'arabe ?" [Is Masri contrary to Arabic?] (in French). Al-Ahram Hebdo. Archived from the original on 31 January 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2010. () "explique Florence Devouard, ex-présidente de la fondation Misplaced Pages. Et d’ajouter : " Il est question pour nous de choisir dix langues natales, parce qu’on veut vraiment que les gens participent dans leur langue maternelle "." and "Certains internautes égyptiens ou non-ne voient donc pas de problèmes à avoir une Misplaced Pages en masri," and "Mais pour d’autres, c’est une catastrophe et une affaire politique. Pour eux, c’est la guerre "en ligne" contre la langue arabe." and "D’autres sont plus logiques. Ils s’opposent à la rédaction d’une encyclopédie dans une langue maternelle parce qu’elle n’a pas de règles, ce qui veut dire qu’un mot peut avoir plusieurs orthographes. Et puis un même mot peut avoir plusieurs sens différents d’un endroit à l’autre et d’une génération à l’autre."
- ^ Panović, p. 94.
- ^ A.V. "The rise and fall of Egyptian Arabic". The Economist. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
- "Wikistats - Statistics For Wikimedia Projects". stats.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
- "Wikistats - Statistics For Wikimedia Projects". stats.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
- "Wikistats - Statistics For Wikimedia Projects". stats.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
- Panović, p. 101.
- ^ Panović, p. 95.
- ^ (In French) Lesdebate, Syndrome identitaire, Le masri langue Wikipedienne Archived 4 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- Panović, p. 94-95.
- "Wikimedia Traffic Analysis Report - Misplaced Pages Page Views Per Country - Breakdown". stats.wikimedia.org. 25 October 2018. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
- "Wikimedia Traffic Analysis Report - Page Views Per Misplaced Pages Language - Breakdown". stats.wikimedia.org. 25 October 2018. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
- Cohen, Noam (21 July 2008). "In Egypt, Misplaced Pages is more than hobby". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 14 December 2008. (Archive)
- ^ Mennasat Archived 14 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- Nabulssi-Masełbas, Zuzanna (2023). Egyptian Linguistic Separatism. A Study in Misplaced Pages Masri. Warsaw: Warsaw University. pp. 51–51. ISBN 978-83-963626-2-9.
- Panović, p. 99.
- ^ Panović, p. 96.
- Panović, p. 97.
- ARZ wiktionary project
- Meta News July 2020
- Middle Esat online Archived 14 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- جدل بين مدونين مصريين حول ويكيبيديا المصرية [Debate between the Egyptian bloggers on the Egyptian Misplaced Pages] (in Arabic). Shorouk News. 24 January 2009. Archived from the original on 3 March 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2010.
- intelligentdesigns.net Archived 3 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- globalvoices.org: Egypt: Egyptian Dialect Misplaced Pages Archived 13 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- egyptsguy.blogspot.com
- "Approval of a Misplaced Pages in Egyptian Arabic (Masry) ignites debate over the difference between a language and a dialect". Page F30. 11 June 2009. Archived from the original on 27 February 2012. Retrieved 13 March 2010.
- Abed, Shukri B. (2006). Focus on Contemporary Arabic (Conversations with Native Speakers). Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10948-1.
- Language helpers Archived 4 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- الوكالة العربية للأخبار العلميةarabsn.net
- Almubasher.net Archived 13 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- "The Arabic Language: A Latin of Modernity?". Archived from the original on 30 July 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
- Moheet.com Archived 7 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- المصريون Archived 23 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- pagesperso.univ-brest.fr: Why you should boycott the Egyptian Misplaced Pages
- "Egyptian Arabic". Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales.
- "Egyptian Arabic", Misplaced Pages, 14 July 2024, retrieved 9 August 2024
- omraneya.net Archived 22 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
References
- Nabulssi-Masełbas, Zuzanna. Egyptian Linguistic Separatism. A Study in Misplaced Pages Masri. Warsaw, Warsaw University, 2023.
- Panović, Ivan (University of Oxford Faculty of Oriental Studies). "The Beginnings of Misplaced Pages Masry". al-Logha Series of Papers in Linguistics, 2010. 8: 8, 93–127.
External links
- Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages at the incubator
- Proposal for Egyptian Arabic Misplaced Pages at Meta
- The Incubation of the Egyptian Arabic Wiktionary