back to article Wikipedia cracks the five-million article barrier, in English

The English language version of Wikipedia has celebrated the publication of its five millionth article. The entry for Persoonia terminalis, “a shrub belonging to the family Proteaceae, which is native to eastern Australia,” went up on Sunday, November 1st at 12:27 UTC and set the confetti falling from the ceiling in the …

  1. Tannin

    But it isn't in English

    But it isn't in English. Most of Wikipedia (en) is written in American dialect. An actual English version is desperately needed.

    (American speakers would benefit from this too by having their own Wikipedia written in their own language.)

    1. Ole Juul

      Re: But it isn't in English

      The sun did eventually set on the British Empire. Sorry.

      I'm not American and I've generally followed British spellings and grammar. However, English is a language of change and one does not have to follow British rules in order to have good language. Let's get over it, and start to become a bit more international, shall we?

      1. TheVogon

        Re: But it isn't in English

        "The sun did eventually set on the British Empire."

        Well, yes. Most Americans gave up speaking English by about 1783....

        "Let's get over it, and start to become a bit more international, shall we?"

        Let's be clear on the issue, "American English" is not the same as "English". They are welcome to call it "American", but to call it just "English language" is somewhat irritating when it clearly isn't.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: But it isn't in English

          Assuming "English" is "British English" is equally irritating. Let's be clear, "English" could be either (or both or neither).

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: But it isn't in English

            I think English would normally be assumed to mean English English, the language of the English that, later, was also heavily adopted by Britain and Ireland.

            1. Just Enough

              Re: But it isn't in English

              I think someone needs to go and read the Wikipedia article on the history of English.

            2. Primus Secundus Tertius

              Re: But it isn't in English

              Other languages have similar arguments. A German was telling me once of the awful things the Austrians do to the German language. But as far as we 'auslaender' (foreigners) are concerned it is all German.

              Then there was the Brazil tour guide telling us about the Portugueses of Brazil and Portugal. It felt very like the differences between Englishes across the Atlantic.

              Then there are the 57 varieties of Spanish, and of Arabic: but to outsiders they are single languages.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: But it isn't in English

            "Assuming "English" is "British English" is equally irritating."

            No, British English is the only still existing original, and therefore requires no qualification for readers to expect "English" to mean British English.

            "Here you go, the proper English version: http://h2g2.com/"

            Intergalactic English is NOT proper English.

        2. bearvarine

          Re: But it isn't in English

          English - The most ubiquitous international language that everyone loves to hate...

          The French are still upset that English became the de-facto international language.

          India has its own dialect of English.

          The Philippines has its own dialect of English.

          South Africa has its own dialect of English.

          The Japanese language now incorporates English borrowed-words for 5% and 10% of all words in common usage.

          We should be glad to be the third most-spoken language in the world, and arguably the most important one. Dialects are really not to terribly important in the grand scheme of things.

          http://bloggingprince.blogspot.com/2011/03/english-speaking-countries-in-world-map.html

          http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm

          1. TheVogon

            Re: But it isn't in English

            >> The French are still upset that English became the de-facto international language

            If not clear, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hawRbECNX8o

    2. Chuq

      Re: But it isn't in English

      This issue was raised in the early days. If there were two English versions of each article, 99% of each pair of articles would be identical - can you imagine trying to keep them in sync with each other?

      It was decided to have a single English version and to alter the spelling based on the subject of the article (e.g. the article on Winston Churchill would use International English, the article on John F Kennedy would use US English spelling). If there is no particular geographic or cultural focus to the article, it stays in the version in which it was first written. In the case of the five-millionth article, it is about an Australian shrub so it would use the International English spelling.

      1. Turtle

        @Chuq Re: But it isn't in English

        "If there were two English versions of each article, 99% of each pair of articles would be identical - can you imagine trying to keep them in sync with each other?"

        If it were done properly, with each article having an English and an American version, It would entail lots of pointless busywork. Which is basically what most of Wikipedia is, if you think about it.

        So, yes.

        1. Bob H

          Re: @Chuq But it isn't in English

          What about auto-translation between the two versions, should be possible and a bot could even process to create the parallel universes.

        2. Tannin

          Re: @Chuq But it isn't in English

          "If there were two English versions of each article, 99% of each pair of articles would be identical - can you imagine trying to keep them in sync with each other?"

          This is already the case for every other different language version. How many are there now, more than 100?

          In any case, most of the Wikipedia articles are short and cover subjects of mind-blowing triviality. Of those 5 million pages, maybe 10% are worth keeping.

    3. Captain DaFt

      Re: But it isn't in English

      "An actual English version is desperately needed."

      Here you go, the proper English version: http://h2g2.com/

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What about a Wikipedia article on how desperately those donations are needed (full page banner last I checked, followed by "snag" pop-ins on subsequent pages) so that all those programmers and, fundamentally, managers, "communication directors", and various other breed can continue their marvellous work of pushing out indispensable tools to the "community", such as the Media Viewer, Visual Editor, and of course, superprotect rights.

    Without them, five million edits would not have been possible, would they?

    (excuse the sarcasm)

  3. Voland's right hand Silver badge

    Persoonia terminalis

    It sounded very Australian.

    With this name, I was expecting yet another specie of the indigenous flora/fauna which eats people for breakfast as proper for the "Last Continent".

    Utterly disappointed that it does not.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Persoonia terminalis

      I'm disappointed, too. I was expecting some huge tree that lassos it's human victims and shreds them for fertiliser.

  4. jake Silver badge

    One wonders ...

    ... what percentage of those articles are error-free?

    1. Ole Juul

      Re: One wonders ...

      I don't. Lots of them have bad English. I've edited a few just because I couldn't stand the grammar.

    2. Anonymous Coward
  5. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    The real question is:

    Do the Knights who say 'Ni!' approve?

    On a related note: although the Empire has ceased to be etc. as such, the sun still doesn't set on it, due to less than a handfull of tiny islands here and there around the globe.

    That being said, unless it's as dead as a Norwegian Blue, every language is dynamic and constantly changeing, including english. So over time we'll probably see an 'international' version of it, and I'm okay with that.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Reminds me

    Must update the details of Barney Rubble's crack cocaine habit...

  7. Notas Badoff
    Happy

    How complimentary ...

    ElReg must be turning a new leaf!

    As to the accidental side-topic, if you read more than a few articles on WP you will soon see 'taint always one English but all of them. After freaking out at the mental image of a proud Indian neighborhood 'metaling' their main road, I finally tracked that down to a retained imperial usage for paving a road. Even the English don't English like they used to. They englished the ole sphere and we all are enjoying the billiards. Well, except the French.

    1. Primus Secundus Tertius

      Re: How complimentary ...

      There was a German empire up to 1914. Things might have turned out very differently if they had not made the mistake of torpedoing American ships.

    2. Martin 26

      Re: How complimentary ...

      Surely 'metalled' road is standard British English, don't think because you've never heard it before that it's something obscure

  8. Stevie

    Bah!

    If you filter out the articles where the author was trying to demonstrate their grasp of the subject to his/her peers rather than trying to explain it to someone trying to understand what the fuss is about*, and the articles about Pokemon, Star Trek, Star Wars and other stuff about pretend things, how many are left?

    * For example the one on mechanical stress or about half the mathematical ones in which the purpose of The Encyclopedia Page Preamble was apparently lost on the writers.

    1. bearvarine

      Re: Bah!

      How did we ever live before you could look up in Wikipedia the synopsis of every episode of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation? THAT is a frikkin SERVICE to mankind!

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