Sundanese Wikipedia (Wikipedia basa Sunda)

The Sundanese-language edition of Wikipedia: overview, size as of 2021, language features, community, uses for education and cultural preservation, and challenges facing the project.

Sundanese Wikipedia (Wikipedia basa Sunda) is the Sundanese-language edition of the Wikimedia encyclopedia project and part of the family of Wikipedia sites maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation. It provides articles written in Sundanese intended for native speakers, learners, and anyone interested in the language and culture. The project exists alongside national and regional language Wikipedias and serves as an online reference in a local Austronesian language.

Characteristics and scope

By 8 March 2021 the Sundanese Wikipedia contained approximately 60,650 articles. Its content covers general encyclopedic topics—history, geography, biographies, science, and cultural subjects—presented in Sundanese. The language itself is primarily written in the Latin alphabet today; historically a Sundanese script also exists and is an element of cultural heritage for readers and contributors.

History and community

The Sundanese edition grew through contributions of volunteer editors, many of whom are speakers living in West Java and other parts of Indonesia or members of the Sundanese diaspora. Like other regional-language Wikipedias, it developed through grassroots edits, organized community efforts, and periodic outreach activities to recruit contributors and improve article quality. Readers and editors connect through the site and related discussion pages.

Uses and importance

Educational resource: articles support learning in the Sundanese language and supplement classroom materials.
Language preservation: offering written coverage of local traditions, literature, and terminology helps document and normalize the language online.
Cultural visibility: topics of regional significance gain wider accessibility when available in Sundanese.

Readers can access the project via Sundanese Wikipedia, and community pages describe how to help write and improve articles. The site functions both as an information repository and as a platform for developing digital literacy in Sundanese.

Challenges for the project include recruiting and retaining active editors, ensuring reliable sourcing for local topics, and bridging gaps between spoken dialects and written standards. Despite these difficulties, the Sundanese Wikipedia remains a valuable digital space for documenting the language and sharing knowledge in Sundanese.