[Foundation-l] A simple question on languages.

Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijssen at gmail.com
Sat Jan 26 09:57:38 UTC 2008


Hoi,
The answer that I gave you is clear. There are currently over 7000 languages
supported in ISO-639-3. Most are eligible according to the policy for new
languages.
Thanks,
     GerardM

On Jan 26, 2008 3:21 AM, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Jan 24, 2008 11:21 PM, Jussi-Ville Heiskanen <cimonavaro at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > So please be explicit. You want to definitively challenge the mission
> > set by Jimbo. Worded as:
> > "an effort to create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest
> > possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own
> language".
> > ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia#Language_editions )
>
> I don't want to change anything at all about what we do... but rather
> I don't want to continue to see arguments about language continue
> without nary a fact in sight.
>
> This is a basic question I've asked. It may not be an *easy* question,
> but it is a basic one... and without having at least an approximate
> answer to work from we can't hope to make rational decisions. No
> wonder so many discussions of language around here devolve into racism
> and nationalism... if all we have to go on is hunches and emotion.
>
> As far as the old mission goes: What is a person's own language?  I'd
> argue that it's the one that they'd prefer to use for a particular
> purposes all other things being equal.   Other than knowing that thier
> choice would be among the languages they can use I don't think we know
> much else without asking them. Claiming that someone prefers a
> language simply because of their race, nationality, or location is
> bound to be inaccurate, as is typical of racial or national
> stereotyping.
>
> > Honestly, I don't get why anyone is wasting time even responding
> > to this thread. We aren't gonna change here.
>
> So long as people who advocate multi-lingulism in varrious forms can
> not support their positions with data like I've asked for here they
> will find it difficult to reach agreement with people for whom
> multi-lingulism for multi-lingulisms sake is a lower priority.
>
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