Commons:IG Commons Hub/Projects/Say-It-Right:Wikipedia as a tool for preventing mispronunciation of names

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Overview

Deliberate names mispronunciation is often considered a microagression. Unfortunately, names of African origins suffer a lot from this type of microaggression so much so that LinkedIn had to introduce a name pronunciation feature. The internet is full of documented experiences 1, 2, 3.

Wikipedia also has this feature but it isn't often used. This project aimed to record, using Spell4wiki app, pronunciations of names of individuals with live articles on Wikipedia to be stored as media files on Commons and utilised on the corresponding Wikipedia pages using the audio template.

Participants

1. Wilson
2. Jeremyida002
3. Stephanie cheks
4. Iwuala Lucy
5. Grace Chris 123
6. Odogwu123
7. King Adetola
8. Godfrey Emmanuel
9. enyiavic
10. Hills2222
11. Dagentle
12. Dominion Obetule1
13. Amaranorah
14. DebbieUfedo
15. Ngoudechi
16. Adakaibe
17. Albertoblaq
18. PassionateLibrarian
19. Blisssax
20. Lebron jay
21. SheddyGlorious
22. Ngene Blessing
23. Accuratecy051
24. Obedmakolo
25. Hesyomi
26. Temiluv
27. Viva33
28. Chikeme Chizurum
29. Akwugo
30. Princejvic
31. Matino183
32. Sayvhior
33. Newtrains
34. Nzechimere
35. Timzy D'Great

Stats

‎1608

Audio files uploaded to Commons

‎1356

Wikipedia Articles linked with audio

‎39

Number of participants

Resources

1. Ibibio - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SPswfxKkTDz428jQumQMgY9kvCc-na6loDXPhqr3ClM/edit#gid=0
2. Igbo - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13CV9_sB5_TYf1Zut6Cr1v4GYk_U9Db5jwEww3xa9kXk/edit#gid=0
3. Hausa - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D6Y0mTF9xTZD1fPrEqsjmIERTB9rpLMHCx4bEwqAKR4/edit#gid=0
4. Yoruba - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BF-8rwNXyu-TM5T1sXLLtu8Fo_Zu_PuFRDpDpiX3aws/edit#gid=0
5. Igala - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f9O65viqwyMp66_FGo_Kg2QPqD3BmtJK6DhYjuq8Ao0/edit#gid=0

Learnings

• This project recognised and gave participants from underrepresented communities like Igala and Ibibio and a couple others the opportunity to contribute content on and about their ethnic groups.
• Some of he participants had only ever made text based contributions prior. They were introduced to recording audio, Wikimedia Commons, Templates, spell4wiki etc.
• More than once, we received feedback from participants who were so enthralled at the prospect of being 'the voice behind the recording' that they proceeded to make social media posts about respective Wikipedia articles they had worked on. This was very good publicity for the project and the movement at large.
• There was a ton of mispronunciations in two groups particularly, and in many cases, poorly recorded files. We discovered that it may not entirely be a good idea to have a large group of people work on a project of this nature. Unlike texts, poorly recorded audio has to be removed as it defeats the purpose for which it was created - to fight mispronunciation. This made the job of cleaning up quite hectic. I also discovered a ton of Nigerian names mispronunciations uploaded by the Voice of America (VOA) - It was an interesting find and it gave credence to the importance of the work we were doing.
• Spell4wiki is a great app for creating and uploading audio to Wikimedia Commons. It however doesn't make room for names that are more than 30 characters.