Dear LangCom,
I am a sometime contributor to Latin Wikipedia, Latin Wikisource, and Latin Wikibooks. I
feel that my time is well spent doing this, and belong to a community of people who write
and use spoken Latin, although my own Latin is still intermediate at this point. However,
I can appreciate that Latin takes up a large part of many people’s lives, and thus I
suspect this is true for some other ancient languages, which are, in the end, still
employed and varifiably so. Thus I am sympathetic to the claims made that some other
ancient languages may also have communities in a similar position.
You may have seen that some users have asked for the policy that makes an auto0matic
refusal for ‘ancient and historic languages’ to be revisited
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Start_allowing_ancient_languages#Discussion>.
After checking through the rules and procedures, it seems this is something you as a
committee need to decide, rather than being a matter of general debate, so I am emailing
you to ask you to consider revising the policy, in a manner which allows a little more
flexibility for languages which are historic, learnt, but in use.
I think there is some need to do this, as can be seen from your archives, which show that
it is hard to achi9eve a consistent approach while constructed alnguages with a body of
current usage are allowed, but an ancient language with similar levels of fluent usage, is
not allowed. This I note has been a matter of discussion relating to Ancient Greek, for
which a discussion is still open.
I drafted a proposal that would try to create consistency between the constructed and
ancient language situation, while recognising that most historic languages should not
normally qualify for inclusion. Nevertheless, in some important exceptions, where there is
a credibly large enough number of language users, with sufficient skill, and attestable
external usage of that language,, these languages could be allowed without opening the
floodgates, with a well-crated policy.
I would also like the committee to note that I would be happy to help frame this policy in
a sensible way, if that is of interest.
Thank you for your time,
Jim
Definition of ancient or historic language[edit
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Requests_for_comment/Start_allowing_ancient_languages&action=edit§ion=12>]
For Wikimedia projects' purposes, an ancient or historic language is one which
Was used historically and has an extant corpus of works;
Is typically acquired by formal learning;
Is typically fixed in form, eg by grammar rules developed and documented while the
language was in common usage;
May or may not not be used in modern linguistic domains, such as: trade; education;
academic discourse; music; poetry; religious discourse; etc.
Qualification of an ancient or historic language for a Wiki project[edit
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Requests_for_comment/Start_allowing_ancient_languages&action=edit§ion=13>]
The same basic eligibility criteria should apply in a similar but somewhat stricter manner
than artificial languages, recognising that acquisition is likely to be harder than is
typical for constructed languages, but also that acquisition may be more common and
resources more developed; and also that practical usage is likely to be lower than for
many contemporary natively-acquired languages.
Therefore I propose that:
Wikis are allowed in ancient or historical languages despite having no native speakers;
although these should be on a wiki for the most widely used form of the language, when
possible;
There must be evidence of a significant potential readership and evidence of a significant
body of competent potential contributors; for instance at least thousands of people
trained in writing the language;
There should be a significant historical corpus and usage for modern authors to draw upon,
for instance, a large volume of extant texts or a large volume of recordings, sufficient
to understand the idiom as well as the grammar of the language; whether generated as an
auxiliary language, domain specific language or a native language;
The language must have a reasonable degree of contemporary usage as determined by
discussion. (Some recognition criteria include, but are not limited to: independently
proved number of speakers or writers, use as an auxiliary or domain-specific language
outside of online communities created solely for the purpose, usage outside of Wikimedia,
publication of works in the language for general sale, publication of academic papers in
the language, availability of courses or training which aim at fluent compositional or
oral usage.)