Wiktionary:About Alemannic German

	This is a Wiktionary policy, guideline or common practices page. This is a draft proposal. It is unofficial, and it is unknown whether it is widely accepted by Wiktionary editors.
	Policies – Entries: CFI - EL - NORM - NPOV - QUOTE - REDIR - DELETE. Languages: LT - AXX. Others: BLOCK - BOTS - VOTES.

This page explains considerations (beyond those covered by general policies) which apply to Alemannic German entries and Alemannic German translations of English entries.

Wiktionary:Entry layout is the principal policy on formatting entries. This document supplements that policy.

Alemannic German entries begin with a ==Alemannic German== header, which is inserted into the article after any ==Translingual== or ==English== section, but otherwise in alphabetical order with other level 2 headers.

If an entry for another language (or ==Translingual==) appears on the same page as the Alemannic German entry, the entries are separated with four dashes (----) in an otherwise empty line.

Following is a simplified entry for the Alemannic German word Huus (“house”). It shows the fundamental elements of a Alemannic German entry:

==Alemannic German==

===Alternative forms===
* {{alter|gsw|Hus}}

===Etymology===
From {{inh|gsw|gmh|hūs}}, {{m|gmh|hous}}, from {{inh|gsw|goh|hūs}}, from {{inh|gsw|gem-pro|*hūsą}}.

===Noun===
{{head|gsw|noun|g=n|plural|Hüüser|diminutive|Hüüsli}}

# [[house]]

The headers allowed below the ==Alemannic German== header are the same as those used in English entries, except for the “Translations” section, which is only allowed in English entries. The headers also have the same order and levels as in English entries, and the format of their content is generally identical, though certain differences between the two languages have to be taken into account.

No special consideration apply to Alemannic German etymologies except that the German cognate should, if it exists, always be provided (using {{cog}}) even if it is a false friend (as in gruusig).

For an overview of the symbols used to transcribe Alemannic German pronunciation, see Appendix:Alemannic German pronunciation.

As Alemannic German is a highly variable dialect continuum that, in addition, doesn't have a standardized orthographic system, considerable care has to be taken to ensure that our corpus of entries is maintainable, consistent and free of redundancy.

We follow a system that categorizes groups of semantically related terms based on whether they share (recent) etymology and pronunciation. Consider the following situation:

All 6 terms share a common meaning (potato). There is a group of 4 and a group of 2 terms that each share not only meaning but also (recent) etymology. We say they share ME (meaning(s) and (recent) etymology). Lastly, there are three groups of each 2 terms that share not only share meaning and (recent) etymology but also pronunciation. We say they share MEP. In each group of terms that share MEP, we identify one principal spelling that we define below.

All but one term (the one following the principal spelling) among all those that share MEP are to be defined as an {{alternative spelling of|gsw|<principal entry>}} of the term that follows the principal spelling. In the above example, this means Härdöpfl is to be defined as {{alternative spelling of|gsw|Härdöpfel}}, Härdepfl as {{alternative spelling of|gsw|Härdepfel}}, and Gummel as {{alternative spelling of|gsw|Gumel}}.

All but one term among all those that share ME but not MEP are to be defined as an {{alternative form of}}. Which term is chosen here is up to the editors' judgement. It may be considered which pronunciation is the most common, which one descended most regularly from Middle High German or which one has the most consistent principal spelling. In the above example, this means Härdepfel is to be defined as {{alternative form of|gsw|Härdöpfel}}.

For borrowings, especially unadapted borrowings, the principal spelling is the one most often attested except if that borrowing is treated and spelled like a native word, then the further rules apply. For instance, cool is a principal spelling because it is overwhelmingly attested in this unadapted spelling. On the other hand, Thönder is the principal spelling because it is not often encountered in the unadapted form thunder in this sense.

For rare and poorly-attested Alemannic German varieties, any spelling that can be attested is the principal spelling. It is up to the Alemannic German editors' community's discretion to decide among themselves which spelling is principal in case of an apparent tie.

For terms and varieties not covered by any of the above exceptional clauses, the principal spelling is determined using the following phoneme-grapheme correspondence table:

TODO: table of correspondences here

Principal entries are entries whose page title follows the principal spelling rules. For every form, a principal entry should exist.

TODO

TODO

TODO