The Simple English Wikipedia is a modified English-language edition of Wikipedia written primarily in Basic English and Learning English.[2] It is one of seven Wikipedias written in an Anglic language or English-based pidgin or creole. The site has the stated aim of providing an encyclopedia for "people with different needs, such as students, children, adults with learning difficulties, and people who are trying to learn English."[3]
Simple English Wikipedia's basic presentation style makes it helpful for beginners learning English.[4] Its simpler word structure and syntax, while missing some nuances, can make information easier to understand when compared with the regular English Wikipedia.
History
Simple English Wikipedia was launched on September 18, 2001.[1]
In 2012, Andrew Lih, a Wikipedian and author, told NBC News' Helen A.S. Popkin that the Simple English Wikipedia does not "have a high standing in the Wikipedia community," and added that it never had a clear purpose: "Is it for people under the age 14, or just a simpler version of complex articles?", wrote Popkin.[5]
Material from the Simple English Wikipedia formed the basis for One Encyclopedia per Child,[6] a project in One Laptop per Child[7] that ended in 2014.[8]
As of November 2024, the site contains over 261,000 content pages. It has more than 1,527,000 registered users, of whom 1,564 have made an edit in the past month.[9]
Website structure
The articles on the Simple English Wikipedia are usually shorter than their English Wikipedia counterparts, typically presenting only basic information. Tim Dowling of The Guardian newspaper explained that "the Simple English version tends to stick to commonly accepted facts".[10] The interface is also more simply labeled; for instance, the "Random article" link on the English Wikipedia is replaced with a "Show any page" link; users are invited to "change" rather than "edit" pages; clicking on a red link shows a "page not created" message rather than the usual "page does not exist".[11] The project encourages, but does not enforce, the use of a vocabulary of around 1,500 commonly used English words[2] that is based on Basic English, an 850-word controlled natural language created by Charles Kay Ogden in the 1920s.[10]
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