Wicipedia Cymraeg – pwysig iawn ar gyfer yr iaith

Now that I would have paid good money to hear. Go on, audioblog it. 😉

Wicipedia Cymraeg – pwysig iawn ar gyfer yr iaith
by Suw Charman at 12:31PM (GMT) on November 4, 2004

The Welsh Wikipedia – Very important for the language
translated quite messily by Patrick Hall (who doesn't have one of these new-fangled typepad accounts…)

O'n i'n siarad ? Joi Ito am Wicipedia – y gwyddoniadur arlein – pan penderfynodd o i fy nghyflwyno fi i'i ffrind fo, Elian, sy'n gweithio ar Wicipedia yn yr Almaeneg. Maen nhw gyda'i gilydd wedi fy mherswadio fi i dechrau helpu efo'r Wicipedia Cymraeg.
I was talking to Joi Ito about Wikipedia – the online encyclopedia – when he decided to introduce me to his friend Elian, who's working on the German Wikipedia. The two of them persuaded me to begin helping with the Welsh Wikipedia.

Dw i ddim wedi defnyddio Wicipedia yn aml, ond gwylies i'r ddadl diddorol sy'n cael ei dechrau gan Horst Prillinger. Dydy Horst ddim yn hoffi'r ffaith fod yr Wicipedia'n agor i abuse gan pobl sy ddim yn gwybod eu pwnc yn iawn. Ac dw i'n gallu gweld ei bwynt fo – sdim guarantee fod yr erthyglau yn yr Wicipedia'n cywir.
I haven't used Wikipedia much, but I followed an interesting argument about it which had begun with Horst Prillinger. Horst didn't like the fact that Wikipedia is open to abuse from people who weren't experts on their subjects. And I can see his point – there's no guarantee that the articles in Wikipedia are accurate.
Ond, meddylwch am funud. Ble gallwch chi ffeindio ffynhonnell gwybodaeth sy'n cywir yn hollol? Dydy'r Encyclopaedia Britannica ddim yn gywir bob amser – mae'n allan o ddyddiad cyn cafodd o ei gyhoeddi. Ac efo'r newid yn y ffordd bod ni'n meddwl am pa fath o ffynhonnell yn ddibynadwy – dydy'r papurau newyddion neu'r teledu ddim yn ddibynadwy bellach – dw i wedi meddwl fod mae'r Wicipedia'n ffurf da iawn am gasglu a rhannu gwybodaeth. Ac mae'n ar gael rhad ac am ddim, i bawb, ym mhobman.
But think about it for a second. Where can you find a source of information that's always totally correct? The Encyclopaedia Britannica isn't accurate all the time – it's out of date before it's published. And every change along the way we have to think of what kind of sources are reliable – the newspapers and television aren't reliable anymore – I thought Wikipedia was a very good format for gathering and disseminating information. And it's available for free, to everyone, everywhere.
Wrth gwrs, dydy Wicipedia ddim unieithog. Mae 'na lawer o fersiwnau mewn llawer o ieithoedd, yn gynnwys y Gymraeg, ac mae'n posib i cross-reference erthyglau rhwng ieithoedd. Er enghraifft, dechreues i gyfieithu'r tudalen am Joi, jyst i gael tipyn o ymarfer, ac mae'r un tudalen yn ar gael yn Pwyleg, Japaneg, Saesneg a nawr mae'r rhan cynta'n ar gael yn y Gymraeg. (Ond rhaid imi, neu rhywun arall, gorffen cyfieithu, ac mae rhaid rhywun sy'n mwy rugl 'na fi golygu'r peth.)
Of course, Wikipedia isn't monolingual. There are many versions in many languages, including Welsh, and it's possible to cross-reference articles between languages. For example, I began to translate the page about Joi, just for practice, and there's a page available in Polish, Japanese, English, and now there is the beginnings of one in Welsh. (But either I or someone else needs to finish it, and for someone more fluent than I am to proof it.)
Mae'r we yn bwysig iawn am yr hen iaith. Dyma'r rheswm pan dechreues i Glwb Malu Cachu a Get Fluent, ond dw i'n meddwl fod yr Wicipedia Cymraeg yn mwy pwysig 'na unrhywbeth dw i wedi gwneud. Mae 'na gymuned o bobl sy'n gweithio ar yr Wicipedia Cymraeg yn barod, ond mae 'na lawer o betha dal i sgwennu. Felly, pam lai ymaelodiwch ? fi, a nhw, a helpu'r iaith trwy estyn yr Wicipedia Cymraeg.
The web is really important for “the old tongue.” That's why I started Clwbmalucachu.com and http://www.getfluent.co.uk, but I think the Welsh Wikipedia is more important than anything I've done. There's already a community of people working on the Welsh Wikipedia together, but there are a lot of things still to be written. So, why not join me, and all the rest, to help out the language by extending the Welsh Wikipedia.