The Armenian Wikipedia (; ) is the

Armenian language Armenian (endonym: , , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language and the sole member of the independent branch of the Armenian language family. It is the native language of the Armenians, Armenian people and the official language of ...

version of

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...

. It was created in February 2003 as Հայերեն Վիքիփեդիա, but started developing in 2005. The name was changed to Հայերեն Վիքիպեդիա on 5 April 2012. With all of its current content, it is listed in

List of Wikipedias Wikipedia is a free content, free multilingualism, multilingual open source, open-source wiki-based online encyclopedia open collaboration, edited and maintained by a Wikipedia community, community of volunteer editors, started on 15 January 2001 ...

in the 100,000+ category. Armenian Wikipedia launched later the option of reading all contents, if preferred, in traditional (Mesrobian) orthography, rather than the Reformed (Abeghian) orthography. Armenian Wikipedia also carried at times parallel articles in Western Armenian language spoken widely in the Armenian diaspora. On 1 April 2019 however, a separate site was launched in

Western Armenian Western Armenian ( ) is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Eastern Armenian. It is based mainly on the Istanbul Armenian dialect, as opposed to Eastern Armenian, which is mainly based on the Yerevan Arme ...

under the name Հայերէն Ուիքիփետիա with a project of moving Western Armenian materials there and expanding content in the new Western Armenian Wikipedia space.

Statistics

It has articles. It also has registered contributors, including administrators. On 29 July 2023, it reached 300,000 articles.

Language

The

used is mainly the

Eastern Armenian Eastern Armenian () is one of the two standardized forms of Modern Armenian, the other being Western Armenian. The two standards form a pluricentric language. Eastern Armenian is spoken in Armenia, Russia, as well as Georgia, and by the Armeni ...

dialect. However, the Armenian Wikipedia is inclusive, and also contains articles of interest in the

dialect, which is predominantly spoken in the

Armenian Diaspora The Armenian diaspora refers to the communities of Armenians outside Armenia and other locations where Armenians are considered an indigenous population. Since antiquity, Armenians have established communities in many regions throughout the world. ...

. Some articles have separate Eastern and Western Armenian versions. In those cases, the articles' secondary dialect is positioned at the top right corner of the article with the primary dialect. Articles in Western Armenian used to be distinctly categorized at Wikipedia Articles in Western Armenian.

Western Armenian Wikipedia

In January 2018, an incubator area was launched in Western Armenian at incubator.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wp/hyw in preparation for a possible launch of a separate Wikipedia in Western Armenian. In April 2019, the Western Armenian Wikipedia was launched a
hyw.wikipedia.org
�� Because of different transliteration rules of Western Armenian, the new wiki was named Ուիքիփետիա instead of Վիքիպեդիա as in Eastern Armenian as used in the main Armenian Wikipedia.

History

Name change

The Armenian Wikipedia was originally named Վիքիփեդիա (''Vikʻipʻedia'') but in 2012 it was renamed Վիքիպեդիա (''Vikʻipedia''). The letter պ (''pē'') replaced the letter փ (''pʻiwr'') to reflect the

unaspirated In phonetics, aspiration is a strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. In English, aspirated consonants are allophones in complementary distribution with thei ...

pronunciation used in the

dialect, the official form of the language as used in Armenia; however, the revised spelling is not consistent with the

transliteration. The discussion and decision to make the change were done in two phases, and the change was put in effect on 5 April 2012.

"One Armenian, One Article"

On 24 March 2014, both Wikimedia Armenia and the '' Human Factor'' () launched a promotion called "One Armenian, One Article" (). This mass-media campaign was promoted on several Armenian television stations. The plan aimed to increase both the quantity and quality of Armenian Wikipedia articles. In addition to expanding the Armenian language's presence on Wikipedia, it would raise the level of each article to reflect the rich history of the Armenian people as well as their current, flourishing position in the contemporary world. The project hoped to organize Wiki-meetings of representatives of

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

and other subjects with the aim of familiarizing them with the Wiki-culture and helping them in making their own contributions in the development of the Armenian Wikipedia. The campaign would be conducted with training and incentive programs, as well as joint activities with educational and cultural institutions and organizations. The "One Armenian, One Article" campaign was shown on the ''Human Factor'' TV program that aired on 24 March 2014 on Armenia TV. The campaign was subsequently popularised by many other information agencies. There was a

news conference A press conference, also called news conference or press briefing, is a media event in which notable individuals or organizations invite journalism, journalists to hear them speak and ask questions. Press conferences are often held by politicia ...

on the "One Armenian, One Article" All-Armenian project on 27 March 2014. In July 2014,

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

reported that as a result of the campaign, the Armenian Wikipedia appeared to be outnumbering its neighboring countries with its more than 125,000 pages, compared to approximately 102,000 pages on the Azerbaijani Wikipedia and almost 84,000 pages on the Georgian Wikipedia. The campaign was supported by the Armenian government as well. Education Minister Armen Ashotyan publicly stated, "One Armenian, One Article – I will definitely do that and believe you will too." Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan said that he created a Wikipedia entry on the Armenian Army.Enjoli Liston
Armenians asked to write Wikipedia entries to promote culture
''The Guardian'', 1 August 2014. Retrieved 3 August 2014

Gallery

Wikipedia-hy-logo-10000.png, Armenian Wikipedia's 10,000 articles logo (3 August 2010) Hywiki100000.png, Armenian Wikipedia's 100,000 articles logo (2 December 2013) Armenian Wikipedia logo (300,000 articles) 1.png, Armenian Wikipedia's 300,000 articles logo (29 July 2023)

References

External links

* Armenian Wikipedia (in

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

) * Western Armenian Wikipedia (in

) {{Wikipedias Armenian-language encyclopedias Science and technology in Armenia Wikipedias by language Internet properties established in 2003 Armenian-language websites