Interlanguage linking of the categories

Question

You probably noticed the yellow box on some categories. That are links between the same category in different language hierarchies. If you didn't, have a look https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Categories

This approach was discussed in Categorisation Google group and there are no objections.

To identify the same pages in different languages Template:Aka is used. On WikiTree+ server all this pages are identified by usage of template and navigator for them is created and updated each day. All language navigators are consolidated here https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Translation_Navigators They are in Automated: namespace, which was created for all automated pages from WikiTree+.

The base category used on all pages is in english language. In cases where english version doesn't exist other language can be used.There could also be other exceptions for this rule, for instance with locations, there are a lot of places without english name and for consistency all places in a country can base on a local name. 

This solution can also be used for linking categories in non-latin scripts to latin version of the category.

For now Aka template is used just for identifying the same pages. In future it might be extended to enable translations for some languages or for mirroring another categories. But for this we will make separated proposals, when time comes.

This will be on the help page for categories.

Same Categories in Different languages

Any category can be in multiple languages and alphabets.

To do this, You need to add Aka template at the beginning of all categories representing the same category. The template has 2 unnamed parameters.

• First one is the name of the base category. That is usually the English one, but can be also any other. Just make sure you use the same base categories on all languages. Also try to be consistent in base language in related categories.
• Second one is the two letter (ISO 639-1) language code of the category.

Example for English Category:Austria and German Category:Österreich categories:

• On Austria category, you add in first line {{Aka|Austria|en}}
• On Österreich you must add {{Aka|Austria|de}}

As you can see, only the language code changes.

When you save, you get the red link to Automated:Lang Austria. Within a day, EditBOT will automatically create the language navigator, that will contain inter language links.

If you later add or remove a category to the group, EditBOT will update the links automatically within a day.

If you have any suggestions or comments, let us know.

Comments

In working through the Categorization Project’s ‘Wanted’ red categories, I see requests for Irish/Gaelic, Croatian, Maltese, Latvian, and Greek.  They all seem to have the Category;Regions, and Category: Europe, (all red), but all seem to need Category:Categories in those languages.  Anyone want to tackle this?

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Croatian is done:  Kategorije (hr) 

Answer 1

Very helpful and useful addition to our categories, Aleš.

Answer 2

Thanks, Aleš. 

Answer 3

Odlično! Še en korak k oblikovanju večjezičnega WikiTree.

Comments

Indeed. 

Answer 4

Wow Ales, sounds perfect, been wondering about the multiple language categories and how to not have them making separate lists of people.  Sounds like you have it covered here.  Now I have to figure out how to do it correctly.

Answer 5

As we're starting to build out categories in languages other than English, I'm thinking that we need to have something like the {{High Level}} template for each language, so people don't go filling up the high levels categories with profiles.

But I'm also thinking that we probably don't want dozens or hundreds of templates, so I'm wondering if it's possible to set the existing {{High Level}} template to use parameters, like {{High Level|fr}} to render a French version, {{High Level|nl}} to render a Dutch version, and so on.

Comments

Just in case it's possible, here's how Google Translate renders "This is a high level category. Please do not add individual profiles. Add profiles to the narrowest category possible. See How to Categorize." in Croatian (hr):

Ovo je kategorija visoke razine. Nemojte dodavati pojedinačne profile. Dodajte profile na najmanju moguću kategoriju. Pogledajte Kako kategorizirati.

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I speak Croatian and I can tell it is computer generated. I decided not to use google translate for translations. You can always do that in browser. If we will have translation system for categories, it will be people driven. Like for Dutch and French help pages.

If the pages would be named like Hr:Kategorije, Top Level template could know the language without the additional parameter. With names Kategorije (hr) it can't, since (hr) is present only if the name is the same in 2 languages.

CategoryInfoBox is designed to display/replace also top level template. We can also add Lang parameter to it, so it will be shown in correct language.

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this is so cool!

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Have you discussed this with the Categorization Project, Aleš? Because we'd have to redo a bunch of existing categories to move the language code from the end of the category name to the beginning, and also change the documentation to tell people to do it this way. 

It does make sense to me to put the language code at the beginning, so the language handling can be automated, and thus scale better, but we should:

1. Do it consistently, and
2. document the new right way to do it.

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I did and I picked a few categories from Croatia and Slovenia for demonstration purpose. But there was no interest in it and a few were against it. So I let it be for now.

Maybe at some point in the future, when Aka will be used and translation of categories will be possible and mirroring of categories will be implemented. Then we can return to correct naming of categories.

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If we truly want a global tree we can not be resistant to this sort of thing - I vote onward and upward to anything that brings in more languages and more inclusion!

Answer 6

Brilliant, thanks Ales. We'll certainly be using this in Spain and Portugal.