Talk:Rangpuri language

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Talk:Rajbanshi language)

Number of speakers source hoedown[change source]

@Haoreima:, you said there was a problem with sources for how many people speak this language? As I said in Simple Talk, it seems likely that the sources are not defining "speaker" the same way. Perhaps some are only counting those who speak Rajbanshi as a first language while others include it as second or third. Darkfrog24 (talk) 19:05, 2 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Sources already in the article[change source]

  • "Ethnologue report" (currently source #6) is a dead link.
  • "Rangpuri" does link well and it does list the number of speakers of Rangpuri, but it's paywalled.
  • "Outlook" source is good but does not mention how many people speak Rajbanshi

New sources[change source]

  • Indian Kanoon says "8 million people in India speak Rajbanshi at home, 1.3 lakh in Nepal, and 10 million on Bangladesh" as of 2018 {{cite press release|url=https://indiankanoon.org/doc/177749481/|publisher=Indian Kanoon|accessdate=January 2, 2022|date=August 6, 2018|title= Need To Include Rajbanshi Languague In The Constitution Of India|author=SHRI PARTHA PRATIM RAY}} This appears to be a press release, so it's not necessarily RS.
  • This book from 2006 says 3 million in India, 100,000 in Nepal, and 13,000 in Bangladesh. {{cite book|url=https://journals.linguisticsociety.org/booknotices/?p=798|accessdate=January 2, 2022|title=Rajbanshi grammar and interlinearized text|author=Tikaram Poudel|work=LINCOM studies in Indo-European linguistics |volume=34|publisher=LINCOM Europa|year= 2006|ISBN =9783895863233}}— Preceding unsigned comment added by Darkfrog24 (talkcontribs) 19:17, 2 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  • Global Recordings does not list how many people speak it but does provide other names for the language, where we might find more info.[1]
  • Joshua Project lists 310,000 speakers, but JP's main goal is providing a foundation for spreading Christianity to non-Christians, so maybe they're not the best. (They might be RS; I just don't know if they're RS.)[2]
  • Here is the Ethnologue page on Rajbanshi and it says how many people speak it! ...it's paywalled: [3]

My conclusion is that more people need to look into this. There is indeed a very wide range for "how many people speak Rajbanshi?" Darkfrog24 (talk) 19:24, 2 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Darkfrog24: Thanks for your research. Let's see how we can develop this article time to time. But many facts are still complex, among which I removed those which lack citations, like belonging to 2 language families. :) Haoreima (talk) 03:04, 3 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
That's probably best. Better to have a short article with all verified information than a longer one with guesses in it. Darkfrog24 (talk) 13:37, 3 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
It's an official language in Assam, and (a variant of it?) in Nepal. Have you looked at census data? - this should at least include primary/firt language speakers?--Eptalon (talk) 15:41, 3 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Eptalon and Darkfrog24: I think Assam has only 3 official languages. Assamese is the official and most commonly spoken language of the state, followed by Bengali, which is official in the Barak Valley and Bodo, which is co-official in Assam and official in Bodoland Territorial Region. is the sentence I found in the 1st paragraph of English Wikipedia article Assam. The greatest problem is that dialects claimed to become languages. Many dialects of Bengali–Assamese languages groups claim themselves to be languages and not dialects. Even according to my personal research, I found almost most of the words or sentences of these dialects/languages able to be easily translated by Google Translate under the Bengali algorithm. Haoreima (talk) 16:11, 3 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry, official language in West Bengal (India), and in Bangladesh (Rangpur Division)? - At least that's what Wikipedia says. --Eptalon (talk) 16:29, 3 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
this PDF seems to be the census data for West Bengal, for 2001. It gives 32k speakers, of 'Rajbangsi'...--Eptalon (talk) 16:38, 3 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Eptalon: Shall we use that PDF link as reference and update the population to that number you found out? Haoreima (talk) 16:41, 3 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
That thing has several problems: 1) it is 20 years old, there may be a newer census 2) It only covers West Begal (India); no idea about Bangladesh or Nepal. 3) Of 58.6 million Bengali speakers, we get a 5 digit number of Rajbanshi speakers, and one person who speaks yet another language. I would expect an inaccurracy of 1% (bad data,...), which is 586.000. At around 30,0000 we are at 5% of that percent error rate 4) It only covers native speakers. What about all thre people who learn this as an extra language? - I think the way ahead would likely be to ask a local (I don't know if there's a Wikiproject languages, or a noticeboard for Indian/Bangladeshi... contributors)? 5) As you point out the question of language, or dialect is a hot potato...--Eptalon (talk) 17:09, 3 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Eptalon: Great idea! Category:User bn will help us to find good people. :-) Haoreima (talk) 17:14, 3 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The article currently cites a 1991 census, so one from 2001 shouldn't be chucked out because of its age. But if the sources say something funny we can just say "X source says this" instead of saying it in Wikipedia's voice. Darkfrog24 (talk) 17:48, 3 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

So, my suggestion would be to clarify the lead based on enwiki, and move the page to Rangpuri language as stated in the source above. Unless there is an official source claiming that the language is indeed Rajbanshi, while Rangpuri is a dialect of Rajbansi.-BRP ever 00:38, 9 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]