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Proposal: Slavic languages

Proposal mentions piling up Czech and others western Slavic languages, but Russian etc are also Slavic.

Edit:

With Russian out of the way that's still mixing of Polish with much smaller languages (vide What are the advantages of single language sites over collective ones?).

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    I assume Russian would not be covered (except insofar as it may be useful to compare it with other Slavic languages) because there is already a separate site dedicated to questions about Russian.
    – sumelic
    Nov 10, 2016 at 5:10
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    I think it was unfair to make a separate site for each world language and disregard minor ones, to begin with. If the original Stack Overflow did the same there would be no place to ask questions about D or Rust or F# programming languages. Now the situation is there and needs to be addressed somehow.
    – The Vee
    Nov 12, 2016 at 16:36
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    I really hope we include Russian, as it is indeed Slavic. Otherwise shouldn't we change our title to something like Minor Slavic Languages? BTW the current definition says "This includes Czech, Polish, Serbian and more." Not the greatest definition in the world, but "and more" could mean Russian too. Yes there is a Russian.SE but it would not be the first overlap. History.SE overlaps with HSM.SE (History of Science and Mathematics). Electrical Engineering SE is a subset of Engineering SE, which itself is a subset of Physics.SE. I will not try to mention all the computer SEs.
    – DrZ214
    Dec 8, 2016 at 5:21
  • yes, languages are too far away from each other to be lumped sensibly, Polish will dominate over small ones. But it is only way to create SE for these small languages. Also don't forget about question about some group of slav. languages.
    – yalov
    Mar 30, 2017 at 18:25

4 Answers 4

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There's a whole Russian SE, just like many other sites devoted to individual world languages (and a few constructed and dead ones, too). Discussion whether that was a good design choice aside, it's how things are and it does not leave much space for Slavic languages that do not enjoy the same pride of name to get some visibility. I think grouping the rest in a single topical site, with a link to the dedicated site for questions about Russian, is the only reasonable way out.

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I think it is not too broad. Only thing that I would consider is: if Serbian and Bulgarian languages that use Cyrylic alphabet shouldn't be part of separate SE (or Russian) just due to reason of alphabet what can result in loosing transparency.

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  • Serbian language uses both Latin and Cyrillic alphabet, so no problem there.
    – eyedropper
    Feb 6, 2017 at 1:45
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It is not too broad, but site need some spetification at the description.

There is overlaps with Russian SE, Ukranian SE, Language Learning SE, and Linguistics SE.

There is only 16 (extincted languages exluded) of Slavic languages (Wikipedia):

East: Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian, Rusyn
West: Czech, Slovak, Polish, Silesian, Kashubian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian
South: Bulgarian, Macedonian, Church Slavonic, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian

Separate-SE-lang (Russian, Ukrainian) and no-mainlang-country (Rusyn, Silesian, Kashubian, Church Slavonic, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian) can be move to “more...” section, so there is 8 left:

East: Belarusian
West: Czech, Slovak, Polish
South: Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian

̶(̶b̶e̶l̶a̶r̶u̶s̶i̶a̶n̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶l̶i̶t̶t̶l̶e̶ ̶b̶i̶t̶ ̶a̶l̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶a̶n̶y̶)̶

So, this is SE for:

  • question about some group of Slavic languages.
  • question about these Slavic languages: Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Bulgarian, Slovak, Belarusian, Macedonian, Slovenian and more.
  • Russian-specific question or Ukrainian-specific question are not belong there (except they compare with other Slavic languages).

Language is arranged by count of native speakers.

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I believe it is indeed to broad. There's Linguistics SE which is dedicated to all linguistics questions and questions about Slavic in general belong there. On the other hand, having a stack like Russian SE but about all Slavic languages will be very messy.

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    "Linguistics Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for professional linguists and others with an interest in linguistic research and theory." — That's not a place for learners of Slavic languages. And while it technically permits enthusiasts without formal linguistic education discussing theoretical questions, the typical questions that appear there set the level just too high.
    – The Vee
    Nov 12, 2016 at 16:29
  • I agree with @TheVee - language learning questions aren't appropriate for that site.
    – EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
    Mar 2, 2017 at 15:53
  • @TheVee but I've actually didn't meant language learners at all - all I'm trying to say that if you have a question about Slavic in common - it's more likely you have to head to Linguistics.
    – shabunc
    Mar 2, 2017 at 15:57
  • @shabunc You're right, I was probably taking your suggestion with regard to the description of the proposal, which specifically says "experts and learners of one or more of the Slavic languages and cultures". So Linguistics would be a solution but just for a part of this audience.
    – The Vee
    Mar 2, 2017 at 16:19

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