Wikipedia:Requests for mediation/Washo Language

Washo Language

 * Editors involved in this dispute
 * 1) – filing party


 * Articles affected by this dispute


 * Other attempts at resolving this dispute that you have attempted
 * Page history

Issues to be mediated

 * Primary issues (added by the filing party)
 * 1) Removal of sources.
 * 2) Condescending and pompous remarks by Taivo trying to indicate he/she is superior in this topic.


 * Additional issues (added by other parties)
 * There is only one issue. BattleBorn89 isn't apparently a linguist, so is trying to interpret a bad photocopy posted on a website as a definitive source for the transcription of the voiceless glottalized alveolar affricate  in Washo.  This issue has been discussed ad nauseum at Talk:Washo language, but BattleBorn89 doesn't seem to have read it.  There are multiple reliable sources which illustrate the exactly phonetic nature of the sound in question and even the tribe's own language web site (which is the cited reference for the consonant table and examples that BattleBorn89 is ignoring and trying to replace) clearly indicates that this is a voiceless glottalized alveolar affricate using the symbol which I have corrected in the chart (using the symbol that the tribe prefers in its orthography c').  If we need to reargue this issue, I will be happy to do so, but I suggest that the mediator (and BattleBorn89) read the article's talk page first.  It's all already there.  --Taivo (talk) 19:56, 20 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Let me make this very simple. BattleBorn89 is trying to replace this with this.  In other words, a thoroughly exemplified chart of Washo's sounds with examples from the tribe's own linguistic research versus a paragraph out of an overall survey of North American languages that has only a small selection of examples and which BattleBorn89, as a nonlinguist, has misunderstood (interpreting c with a superimposed apostrophe [I'm not sure how to do that in Wikipedia markup] as ć, a symbol that is nowhere used in the Washo linguistic literature).
 * In addition, BattleBorn89 has conducted original research in listing two diphthongs (ay and ey) with the vowels even though not a single linguistic source on Washo includes any diphthongs.

Parties' agreement to mediation

 * 1) Agree. BattleBorn89 (talk) 18:17, 20 August 2016 (UTC)
 * 2) Agree. --Taivo (talk) 19:24, 20 August 2016 (UTC)

Decision of the Mediation Committee

 * Reject. This case is rejected under prerequisite for mediation #4 "The parties must have first engaged in extensive discussion of the matter in dispute at the article talk page and discussion only through edit summaries will not suffice". While there has been some discussion, it's been mostly of the "is" / "is not" variety with no real effort to discuss the actual issues, and even if it had been more on point it's been minimal, not extensive. However, even if this case had not been rejected under prerequisite #4, I would have rejected it under prerequisite #9 which authorizes the chairperson to "refer back to other dispute resolution venues (e.g. dispute resolution noticeboard, third opinion, request for comment, or additional talk page discussion) a dispute which would benefit from additional work at lower levels of the dispute resolution process". Information about those processes, and links to their various pages, can be found here. For the Mediation Committee, TransporterMan  ( TALK ) 23:11, 20 August 2016 (UTC) (Chairperson)