User:Lewkat/sandbox

Article Evaluation

Article: Standard Tibetan

Article has a good focus, and covers many important aspects of Tibetan language history, but I do notice a few things lacking that I uncovered in my own research

Very few reliable/good sources. Many sections have no sourcing at all, or if they are sourced, they reference the Chinese government's official website. However, China has a vested bias against the Tibetan language and people, so the source is almost certainly biased. A lot of the sources are over 150 years old: two of the books were published in 1880.

There don't seem to be many examples of the language's growth over time.

The talk page is very short, and is mostly people adding things, there are very few revisions or edits.

This article isn't rated, and is close to complete, though I can definitely see some things that could use revision or additional information

First draft of edit/addition

Based on Chinese law, Tibet has only one language: Tibetan. This is the "standard Tibetan" and is the language taught in schools, and is recognized as a legal language of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). However, this overlooks the multitude of languages spoken by Tibetans, estimated by Gerald Roche to be roughly 52 languages, while Ethnologue's 15th edition estimates 38 languages. Amdo Tibetan is considered a stable language, given it's strong regional base and large speaking population but it is still threatened by Chinese State policy. Due to a 2001 Language law that declared Mandarin Chinese to be the ultimate language of China, Mandarin Chinese has become the language of commerce, media, education and government. This has led to constant pressure on Tibetan speakers to adopt Mandarin Chinese so that they can participate in all levels of Chinese society inside and outside of the TAR.

China's government is not the only political group that believes that Tibet should have a single language, many groups abroad that believe in a free Tibet also maintain the concept of Tibet as a single entity with a single unified language. These groups include the US Government, the European Union Parliament and the Central Tibetan Administration (Tibetan government in exile) (cite Roche)