Talk:笙

Middle Chinese

Needs Middle Chinese. Will Middle Chinese eventually be added to all character entries (for characters that existed during that period)? 24.29.228.33 04:13, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

That's a good question. You have to understand the current reality. I'm currently the only fluent Chinese speaker regularly contributing to Wiktionary. That has been the situation for the last two years. In addition to creating new entries, I fix other people's poorly formatted entries, and answer their questions (when I get time). I'm no longer optimistic that I will get more help any time soon. By contrast, it took 14 years for the Chinese dictionary Hanyu Da Cidian (which had hundreds of native Chinese speakers working on it) to be published in its entirety. The Kangxi Dictionary (a much smaller dictionary) only took six years to complete, but it also had a number of errors initially. A corrected version was published later on. So, if by eventually you mean some time within the next 30 to 50 years, my optimistic answer would be yes. -- A-cai 13:11, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Good to know. And, of course, Middle Chinese would most likely be considered the "last priority," as so few people are interested in it. Nevertheless, some characters are good to have, to show the change in pronunciation over time, so I'll just continue to request them on an "as needed" basis (not too many). 24.29.228.33 17:15, 29 April 2008 (UTC)