“Mouses” and ratones: a linguistic conflict in the Spanish language Wikipedia

English español

“Mouses” and ratones: a linguistic conflict in the Spanish language Wikipedia
Presenter	Enrique A. Chaparro
Themes	Content, Latin America
About the presenter
Enrique A. Chaparro is a B.S., M.Sc., M.Phil. in Mathematics, working in the fields of cryptography and language theory. es-WP contributor since Nov. 2004, with more than 20,000 edits. Has also contributed in commons, en-WP and fr-WP Former admin (´bibliotecario´), checkuser and member of the es-WP ArbCom. Frequent lecturer in computer security and free software, has also written and lectured on social issues of technology.
Abstract
Spanish is spoken by about 400 million people around the world. It is, 'de jure' or 'de facto', or official language in eighteen countries. Being so widespread, it is not surprising that the language shows great phonological and lexical variations, up to the point of reduced intelligibility among speakers of distant geographical regions. Written language, unaffected by phonological differences, tends to be more 'standard'. However, significant variations persist. The "right choice" of words is a long time issue in Wikipedia in Spanish, where many instances of conflict have arisen about "local" and "academic" uses. This talk is intended to explore the roots of conflict, and suggest some approaches to outline consensus policies.
Language	Spanish