Category talk:Words and phrases by language

This category was nominated for reconsidering on 11 April 2024. The result of the discussion was no consensus.

This category was nominated for merging on 20 April 2025. The result of the discussion was no consensus.

	This category does not require a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:
Languages This category is within the scope of WikiProject Languages, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of languages on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.LanguagesWikipedia:WikiProject LanguagesTemplate:WikiProject Languageslanguage

I just came across this Category:Words and phrases by language.

It's currently a strange hotchpotch of a container category, which AFAICS has 4 types of subcat:

1. sub-cats by language, such as Category:Arabic words and phrases or Category:Hindi words and phrases
2. sub-cats by country, such as Category:Scottish words and phrases and Category:Iranian words and phrases (neither "Scottish" nor "Iranian" is a language).
3. ambiguously-named subcats which could refer either to a language or to a country. For example Category:Spanish words and phrases, Category:Irish words and phrases
4. sub-cats by language family, such as Category:Semitic words and phrases or Category:Germanic words and phrases

This is messy; only first set should be in this category.

I propose that

1. all the categories by language should be renamed to include the word "language": e.g. Category:English words and phrases→Category:English language words and phrases and Category:Arabic words and phrases→Category:Arabic language words and phrases
2. The by-country subcats should be deleted. Categorising languages by country will cause massive category clutter on the more widely-used languages, such as Arabic, English, Spanish and French
3. The ambiguously named categories should be similarly renamed, e.g. Category:Spanish words and phrases→Category:Spanish language words and phrases
4. The categs by language family should all be renamed to include the phrase "language family": e.g. Category:Germanic words and phrases→Category:Germanic language family words and phrases

Any thoughts? --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 21:05, 11 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

For the most part I support BrownHairedGirl's suggestions, with a minor caveat and an addition.

Caveat: I'm not sure the addition of the word "language" to category names is necessary. An explanation on the category page, like that at Category:English words may suffice, perhaps strengthened a bit (e.g. "Articles that are about Spanish language words, not words associated with Spain or ideas described by Spanish words").

Addition: The explicitly "by culture" subcategories should be somehow reorganized. Maybe the easiest way to do that is to remove them from this category altogether and make something like Category:Names by culture into which the surnames and given names subcats (and maybe Category:Native American toponymy, too) could be moved.

And while we're at it, what should be done about Category:Native American words and phrases‎? It has the by-country (actually continent) problem, but contains by-language subcats for Guaraní, Nahuatl, and Quechua. Cnilep (talk) 02:49, 12 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I broadly agree, but suggest attempting rescue before deletion, e.g. all three articles currently held directly in Category:Iranian words and phrases are all Avestan, and could be categorised as such; alternatively, the Iranian categories could be renamed using "Iranian languages sub-family". – Fayenatic London 20:06, 10 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I have since come across Category:Indian words and phrases and others like it, so I set up Category:Words and phrases by culture. If the Scottish category cannot be renamed/split by "language" then this could re-home it. – Fayenatic London 18:38, 17 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]