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EsperantoWiki
MeatballWiki | RecentChanges | Random Page | Indices | CategoriesAn Esperanto Wiki is a wiki that is in Esperanto, which is a constructed language designed to serve as an international auxiliary language (see Wiki:EsperantoLanguage or WikiPedia:Esperanto).
Vikio is the word for wiki in Esperanto.
The public Esperanto wikis:
- EsperantoWikipedia - [Vikipedio] - internet encyclopedia (more than 7000 articles)
- [JEFO-Vikio] - wiki for the Esperanto youth organization of France
- [GEJ-Vikio] - wiki for the Esperanto youth organization of Germany
- [E@I-Vikio], bilingual wiki (Esperanto/English) for Esperanto@Interreto, an event that teaches young people how to use the Internet
- [WikiNi]
How is Vikio the word for wiki in Esperanto? Given that it's a loanword, shouldn't it just be "wiki"? And who decides, anyway?
- In Esperanto, like in many other languages, loan words are usually given a spelling and pronunciation that fits that language's grammar, phonetics, and orthography. Source words starting with "w" customarily take on an initial "v", as Esperanto uses that semivowel only in diphthongs: aŭ, eŭ, and rarely oŭ. The "o" ending gives a word the character of a noun; the root is "viki".
- Word usage is determined by -- surprise! -- usage. There is an official Academy, whose official dictionaries are widely ignored by actual speakers and tend not to cover new subjects, where terminology gets adapted or created by the people who need it. "Vikio" seems to have won out in usage so far, particularly among the Wikipedia crowd. Esperanto may have an unusual history, but it's a human language like any other when you get down to it.