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GRAMMAR should build on wiki family names, not SITENAMEs
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Description

In http://svn.wikimedia.org/viewvc/mediawiki/trunk/extensions/WikimediaMessages/WikimediaGrammarForms.php?view=markup ,
we see an array of grammar forms of wiki names of the WMF.
Almost all of them use the local sitename as an index, thus
{{GRAMMAR:form indicator|{{SITENAME}}}} works in two cases:

  • the userlanguage and the wiki language are the same,
  • the sitename of the wikilanguage coincides with that of

the user language.

In all other cases, you get the value of {{SITENAME}} instead
of correct grammar forms. I.e. potentially wrong, or unreadble texts.

There are minor exceptions - for the Check language, for
instance, there are the canonical English names of the wikis,
too, being used as indexes to the $wgGrammarForms array, thus
English wikis, and those having identically spelt local names,
get correct grammar forms in Check, with their wiki names
properly translated to Check.

Why do we not use this way all the time?

If we were using (canonical) wiki family names to address
grammar forms, we would get correct grammar in the user
language in all instances, and we were using the correct
user language spelling (or a translated / transliterated form)
of the wiki name, which is most likely what users want, who
select a specific interface language.

Even non-WMF wikis, when they form families of several
languages, are likely to profit from this approach.

Caveat: few languages use programmed code for GRAMMAR which needs to be integrated with this kind of change.


Version: 1.16.x
Severity: enhancement

Details

Reference
bz19893

Event Timeline

bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Low.Nov 21 2014, 10:41 PM
bzimport set Reference to bz19893.
bzimport added a subscriber: Unknown Object (MLST).

Interesting idea, but I don't see many uses outside of Wikimedia. Would need {{SITEFAMILYNAME}}, which defaults to {{SITENAME}} and change all messages to use it instead... sound complicated. Or some hacky maps to convert local {{SITENAME}} to family name in convert grammar function.

Restricted Application added a subscriber: alaa. · View Herald TranscriptMar 1 2018, 4:17 PM
Aklapper changed the subtype of this task from "Task" to "Feature Request".Feb 4 2022, 11:01 AM