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Wikipedia turns 25 and the Basque edition becomes a reference for minority languages

The world's largest free and collaborative encyclopedia is celebrating its 25th anniversary with more than 60 million articles, while Wikipedia in Euskera stands out for its sustained growth, active community and support for the care and dissemination of the Basque language on the Internet.

(Foto de ARCHIVO)

Imagen de archivo del logo de Wikipedia.



Europa Press/Contacto/Pavlo Gonchar

02/10/2021
Photo: Europa Press

Born on January 15, 2001 at the instigation of Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, Wikipedia is 25 years old, becoming one of the main references of free Internet knowledge. It is published in more than 300 languages and managed by the Wikimedia Foundation.

In this context, Wikipedia in Euskera has become one of the most successful projects in minority languages, both because of its volume and cultural impact. Wikipedia in Euskera began its career on 6 December 2001 and in 2005 it had more than 4,000 articles; Wikipedia in Euskera has continued to grow steadily, and today it has abouthalf a million articles , thanks to a community of almost 186,000 registered users.

Jimmy Wales himself set Wikipedia as an example of linguistic projects in Basque. In an interview in 2007, he stressed that, in addition to the number of speakers, the main motivation is the preservation of language and culture, which, in his view, explains the success of editions in Basque or Catalan.

Throughout history, Wikipedia in Euskera has marked important milestones , such as the prohibition of the Euskera 1000. It was done collectively and consciously selected. In 2011 it also received an institutional boost, with the introduction of about 11,000 articles by the Department of Culture of the Basque Government.

While global Wikipedia has more than 63 million articles , has more than 100 million registered users and is among the ten most visited websites in the world, the Basque edition is an example of how collaborative projects strengthen languages and communities, and an essential part of the Basque digital ecosystem in this quarter-century of free encyclopedia.

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