>> The proponents of the project have convinced me that Montenegrin is comparable as a language standard to Serbian, Croatian or Bosnian.
>How have they convinced you? Where are the pages of paradigms?
Understand what they have and have not convinced me. They have convinced me that Montenegrin is as entitled to be called a language as Serbian or Croatian—no more, and no less. You have frequently gone back and compared this situation
to the very fine work you did on Western Armenian, but I don't think it's at all comparable. In this case, I am merely saying that Montenegrin is one of the four language standards within the macrolanguage Serbo-Croatian. So: If you were asked, today—leaving
aside history—whether an independent Serbian Wikipedia would be eligible under current rules, what would you say? If you would say no, then we're pretty much in the same position. If you would say yes, then I'd like to know why Serbian qualifies, but Montenegrin
doesn't.
>> Conclusion
>> Several people have said to me that Montenegrin is more similar to other Serbo-Croatian varieties than US and UK English are to each other; would I insist on separate projects if they happened to have separate language codes? No, I wouldn't. But that's because
on the whole, the various English-speaking communities around the world do manage to co-exist with each other quite well—and tend to blunt each other's excesses a bit, too. Sadly, that's not the case here.
>So you want us to enable their divisions?
In an ideal world, I would prefer not to. But the divisions already exist and the history already exists, both in the world at large and within our WMF microcosm. If you have a way to wipe out these divisions and have everyone work together
in harmony on a single Serbo-Croatian project, then please tell me how to do that. I'm saying very clearly: I do not think it is possible. (Do you think the Montenegrins are upset now? Try to close the other three projects and merge them into Serbo-Croatian.
Then you'll really hear screaming.) Maybe none of the four projects (Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin) should really exist as independent projects. But three do, and we are not going to delete them. And if those three do, the fourth must also; it's
no less deserving than the others.