Prussian now kind of has its own Wikipedia

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Back in 2008 a request was made for a Wikipedia in Prussian, which was then rejected due to having been extinct since the 18th century. Interesting logic considering that Wikipedia is available in Anglo-Saxon, Gothic, Latin, and so on. But since that was the decision made, the only option for Prussian was to start its own Wikipedia. A few days ago I noticed a post here on the Prussian discussion board announcing the creation of a Wiki(pedia) in the language, and you can see it here. So far it has two pages besides the main page, one here on the crow (wārnis) and another here on Tilia cordata (līkutailappiska līpa), a kind of deciduous tree.

Prussian on the whole seems a bit "friendlier" to an English speaker than Lithuanian from first impressions alone, probably due to the lack of hooked vowels and some other similarities. English speakers are also much more used to dealing with four cases (no locative, vocative, or instrumental). Some examples:

  • In Lithuanian is lietuviškai (lit. Lithuanianly), in Prussian is en prūsisku
  • 3rd person singular to be ("it is") is ast instead of yra. A small point but a very frequently encountered word.
  • Eraīns mazzi teikātun prūsiskan wikipēdijan. --> Anyone can contribute to the Prussian Wikipedia. Note the -n at the end for the accusative, where Lithuanian has hooked vowels instead.

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