Talk:Guugu Yimithirr language

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KUKU or GUUGU?! proper [or at least consistant] anglicisation needs to be agreed on and adopted, for this page to link to the Kuku Yalanji wikisite. mangonorth

WikiProject Australia rating of Aboriginal language articles

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Hi John,

I noticed you undid my edit to the WP:Australia rating of the Guugu Yimithirr language article by reediting the article and reverting the rating to "High Importance". I completely disagree with this rating, and I believe while the "high" rating may apply for some more common aboriginal languages in Wikiproject languages; a 'High Importance' rating for obscure aboriginal languages does NOT apply to WikiProject Australia.

In order to assess an article as "High" importance the topic should be extremely notable and should reflect the probability of the average reader of Wikipedia (or average Australian reader) needing to look up the topic.

My belief is that the number of students that study obscure (or even near-extinct) Australian aboriginal languages, is an extremely small percentage of students. Further, aboriginal languages are not known, or of general interest, to general public of Australia; or of interest to general English Wikipedia community (see relevant page views). They are a specialist topic related primarily to the indigenous people of Australia. While they may rate more highly for the WikiProject:Australia indigenous taskforce; perhaps even at mid importance or higher; that rating does not apply in the general WikiProject:Australia importance scale.

For comparison for Wikiproject Australia articles do rate as "High importance" , see: Tasmanian Devil, The Wiggles, Donald Bradman, Military history of Australia, Australia Day, Edmund Barton, Native title in Australia, Uluru or the Australian coat of arms.

If you agree after reviewing the criteria, that such Aboriginal language articles should be rated as 'low importance', please either change rollback to/restore my version; or let me know it is OK for me to do so. If you still disagree, we can ask for a Third Opinion from WikiProject Australia.

Regards,

Aeonx (talk) 22:37, 18 November 2010 (UTC)Reply

The claim that Guugu Yimithirr became the first Australian Aboriginal language to be written down by James Cook; may warrant this particular aboriginal language article to be rated as "mid importance" for Wikiproject Australia; but no higher. Aeonx (talk) 22:40, 18 November 2010 (UTC)Reply
Thanks, Aeonix, for your help. Yes, I agree, I probably got a bit carried away - I have lived and worked among Aboriginal people since the early 1970s and presently live on the road to Hopevale (the main centre for Guugu Yimithirr) - so I probably see Guugu Yimithirr and, indeed, all Australian Aboriginal languages (and their rapid dissapearance in so many places) of higher importance than most people do. I will, therefore, reduce the ratings in both categories to "mid". The reasons for this in the Wikiproject Australia category includes the comment by Aeonx above, plus the fact that Guugu Yimithirr was the first Aboriginal language to contribute a word (kangaroo - from "gangarru") to the English language, and also that the Pitjantjatjara language of Central Australia is rated of "mid" importance for this project.
I also think the language deserves a "mid" rating for the WP"language and WP:Australia projects (and for Qld) for several reasons: it is the first language of a number of Australian people, it is under threat of extinction and, therefore, deserves extra attention, and it was the first native Australian language to be studied and a fairly extensive wordlist made. And I think "Indigernous" should retain a "high" rating.

(Indigernous? David Spector (talk) 00:21, 29 October 2017 (UTC))Reply

I hope you will agree that these are reasonable grounds for the "mid" ratings, but if not, please let me know and why you disagree and we shall see what we should do about geting some arbitration or other help. Finally, I will copy all these comments to the Guugu Yimthirr Talk page as I think a record of them should be there too. Again, thanks, Aeonix, for pointing out my initial over-enthusiasm, which really was out of place here in the Wikipedia. Sincerely, John Hill (talk) 07:25, 19 November 2010 (UTC)Reply

The language's name

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