Only modern spoken natural languages. This excludes constructed languages (though Esperanto is an exception since it is commonly spoken) and dead languages, even those that may still be spoken in certain contexts.
Link to [[X language|X]]
If the occurrence is dialect-specific then mention of the specific dialect should be made in a separate column (column 1.5) and, preferably, a link to that dialect page.
Column 1.5 is also used for situations like Chinese, Arabic, and Kurdish where the language-dialect distinction is ambiguous or controversial.[1]
If there is no article for that language or dialect, avoid linking to a more general article about the language family.
Citations and citation requests go in this column or column 1.5
Example word from the language in question written in the standard orthography of that language. Preferably, bracketing the text in its ISO language template as this is advantageous for the rendering of text in some browsers.
If a language has two standard orthographies, the word should be listed in both.
When possible, link to the alphabet or orthography article specific to that language. If there is no page specific to that language's alphabet, a red link should be avoided by linking instead to the general article on the alphabet used (Cyrillic, Greek, etc).
Languages with a non-Latin script may optionally be transliterated into the Latin alphabet (with a link to the transliteration system, if present) in this column along with the non-Latin form.No discussion
Avoid linking to the general Latin alphabet article when there is no separate article covering the language's orthography or romanization system.No discussion
With words written in the Latin alphabet, the entire word should be in italics and the letter(s) that indicates the phone should be in bold.
Non-Latin scripts should not be in italics. If making letters bold affects the way characters are displayed, as is the case with writing systems like Arabic and Devanāgarī scripts, then avoid bolding.
If the language has no standard orthography and/or no common transliteration system, the word should be written in IPA and the cell of column 2 combined with that of column 3 (IPA)
When a language should be included because it has the phone in question in its inventory but no example words are known, the cell should have the template {{example needed}}.
Similarly, when the IPA transcription of a word is known but not the orthographic representation, a question mark with a link to the orthography's page is appropriate.No discussion
Brief supplementary notes (no greater than two lines).
Should only indicate what the orthographical representation is when:
The word in column 2 cannot show bolding (see Punjabi example above)
An example word is not known (see Mari example above)
There are multiple ways of representing the sound orthographically. An exception to this is English and languages where the list may become too cumbersome.
Phonological notes such as precise phonetic realization, notable allophony, and other similar sounds in the language.
Whenever possible, link to the phonology page of the language/dialect (but not the phonology section of the language page).
