At the beginning of March a new version of the on-line encyclopedia has been created in the Kildin Sami language, which is spoken by the Sami, inhabiting the Murmansk region, Russian Federation. Media-centre FINUGOR.RU was informed about it by the originator of the idea Eugeny Lazarev, who lives in Voronezh.

According to him, the idea of creation of a new Wikipedia version in the language of the Kola Sami was first announced by him in January 2011, during the ‘Murmansk week’ held in the Wikipedia. “The project has no administrator yet, because it is still being worked out in the “Articles for creation” unit. When it is made a constant Wikipedia section, the status of admin will probably be given to the most active and profound project developers – according to the decision of the association. We may even need a technical admin-supervisor - knowledge of the language is not necessary - to ensure security from vandalism and to insert different innovations,” – explained the creator of the Kildin Wikipedia.

E. Lazarev clarified that, according to the census of 2002, there are only 753 people in Russia, who have a good command of the Kildin language, sufficient to write an article in it. “I have not yet succeeded in searching the native speakers.” – He stated. “I tried to get in touch with the teacher of the Sami language from Lovozero, but she does not have Internet access. When in the Murmansk region, I will try to apply personally to the Sami centre: on-line - communication has not helped much. On the other hand, the general quantity of the Kildin-speakers is not that important. The fact is that it is necessary to find one, who would wish to be engaged in the subject”.

As an example he made a comparison with the Wikipedia version in the Votic language: it contains 131 articles, despite the amount of the native speakers being only 15.

The trial version of the Kildin Wikipedia contains in the meanwhile 3 articles (Lovozero, Murmansk and Chum) and two service pages. “I myself do not know the language, I just gave a start to the project with the help of dictionary,” – explained the originator.

The only similar project of the non-Russian Sami is Wikipedia version in the Northern Sami language, which includes 3155 articles. There are no Wikipedia versions in the other Sami languages, nor even in the “Articles for creation” unit.