The fact that the Coptic church may or may not issue their documents in Coptic is not enough alone to state that this is a "dead language".
We must look at all facets of modern use (and lack thereof), rather than just the issuance of new documents by a particular church in a specific language.
Mark
On 01/04/2008, Aphaia aphaia@gmail.com wrote:
On Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 5:04 AM, Pharos pharosofalexandria@gmail.com wrote:
On Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 5:33 PM, Mark Williamson node.ue@gmail.com wrote:
For Latin, it is obvious. The latest Roman Missal was published in 2002. If you can argue it is not so much different from the second latest one, it had been published in 1962. Reflecting the so-called 2nd Vatican Counsil and its reformation, 1962 version, or Novus Ordo is very known of its differences from the earlier versions. Or we can refer to CCC or several motu proprios which the Vatican has issued.
On the other hand, Coptic Church doesn't seem to be enthusiastic to issue their documents in Coptic. As for the Orthodox, I don't know any church in the Slavic tradition using Church Slavic as their document language, while still today it is the language of liturgy and the Scrupture and many prayers, and Churches in Greek tradition don't use Attic dialect as far as I know.
There is a good reason Latin learners can be allowed to entertain their linguistic ability on this project, I think. Anyway, even in a narrow region, it is still used and viable to carry ideas.
Yes, I think the exact rule we should propose is: Does this language have a contemporary literature? Are new articles or books still be written in it?
And is the contemporary literature respected by -scholars- of the "historical" language (i.e. not something merely pursued by Sumerian hobbyists)?
Because if there is a contemporary literature, then the language is not truly extinct in the written form.
When we "provide the sum of human knowledge to every human being", we must recognize the diversity of human expression, and that a -full- accounting of the vehicles of intellectual discourse must include all languages that have contemporary literatures, whether they havve native speakers or not.
Pharos
On 29/03/2008, Jesse Martin (Pathoschild) pathoschild@gmail.com wrote:
Hello,
The language subcommittee only allows languages that have a living native community (except Wikisource, due to its archivist nature). This is based on an interpretation of the Wikimedia Foundation mission to "provide the sum of human knowledge to every human being". Thus, the overriding purpose of allowing a wiki in a new language is to make it accessible to more human beings. If a language has no native users, allowing a wiki in that language does not fit our mission because it does not make that project accessible to more human beings. Instead, a wiki in their native languages should be requested if it doesn't already exist.
Typically, the users requesting a wiki in an extinct language don't want to provide educational material to more people at all, but only want to promote or revive the language. While these are noble goals, they are not those of the Wikimedia Foundation, so that a wiki should not be created simply to fulfill them.
But that is my opinion. What do you think; should wikis be allowed in every extinct language?
-- Yours cordially, Jesse Plamondon-Willard (Pathoschild)
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