Marcos Cramer hett schreven:
I think that in the case of ancient languages, which no longer have native speakers, we should have the following two criteria additionally to the criterion of an active test project:
- New literature is still being produced and published in the proposed language (whether translated or original)
- The proposed language is taught in a number of institutions like schools or universities.
In an earlier e-mail I pointed to the page http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Slomox/Languages, in which I have written down my thoughts on the matter. My idea was to set a limit of at least 1000 real (fluent) speakers (the number is based on recent decisions of the language subcommittee like approval of Sater Frisian, which has a number of speakers only slightly higher than 1000). This rule of 1000 real speakers makes every other rule like "produces literature" or "is taught in school" unnecessary. Cause there is no ancient language with 1000 real, fluent speakers except for some very few, which all are teached in schools and produce literature. The rule of 1000 speakers has the advantage that it is countable (better countable and more relevant than literature output or schools teaching it). The rule can be applied for living languages, ancient languages and constructed languages all the same without extra rules to outrule unwanted languages.
Marcus Buck