User fiteny templates aid multilingual communication by making it easier to contact someone who speaks a certain language. The idea originated on the Wikimedia Commons and has also been implemented on Meta-Wiki and some of the other Wikipedias, to varying extents.

To participate, you can add the Babel endrika to your user pejy by following these instructions:

• Start off with ((Babel|
• Next add one of the following codes for each fiteny you speak or understand, separated by |, where xx is the Wikipedia code for the language. The general usage of each code level is as follows (note that not all languages have all levels, but you may create the endrika you are missing):
  • xx-0 if you don't understand the fiteny at all. Don't use it for every fiteny that you don't know; only when there is some reason why you might be expected to know it.
  • xx-1 for basic ability - enough to understand written material or simple questions in this language.
  • xx-2 for intermediate ability - enough for editing or discussions.
  • xx-3 for advanced level - though you can write in this fiteny with no problem, some small errors might occur.
  • xx-4 for 'near-native' level - although it's not your first fiteny from birth, your ability is something like that of a native speaker.
  • xx (no hyphen or number) for native speakers who use a fiteny every day and have a perfect grasp of it, including colloquialisms.
• Then finish by adding closing braces: ))

So, for example, ((Babel|en|de-1)) would indicate a native speaker of English with basic knowledge of German. ((Babel|sv|no-4|he-3|lt-2|es-1|an-0)) would indicate a native speaker of Swedish with an almost-native knowledge of Norwegian, advanced knowledge of Hebrew, an intermediate knowledge of Lithuanian, a basic knowledge of Spanish and no knowledge of Aragonese.

These templates add you to the category associated with your level of understanding, and to the overall category for that language.

To find someone who speaks a particular language, see fiteny ny mpikambana, and follow the links. For the most part, the two and three letter codes are taken from ISO 639, but see this list for a comprehensive guide.

You can help expand this system by creating templates for your language. Categories have already been created for most languages which have editions of Wikipedia containing over a hundred articles; they just need labelling up! It's recommended to copy the English or French versions when expanding the scheme, as most of the languages listed here are incomplete.

There is another option for achieving results the same as or similar to the standard Babel endrika above: you can add stand-alone fiteny templates. Format: ((User xx-1))((User yy-1))((User zz-1)).

You can see the list of endrika here