Ting Chen wrote:
Hi folks,
since its creation I wondered why this happend. Why is there a classical
chinese Wikipedia? This language has no native speakers and is not used
by any relitious or official institution as official language.
Because at the time it was created, we had not yet given GerardM and his
team of rules lawyers the power to decide all wiki creation issues. There
was a sentiment that we as a community should make our own decisions on
language issues, rather than to delegate it to some standards body who
might not have similar interests at heart. And some people held the
opinion that while language study and preservation is not our core
mission, it'd be nice if it happened anyway, especially if there is no
significant cost to the organisation.
I totally agree with you on the issue of language conservation. Actually
I had even thought about the possibility to use our wiki to do such
things. I had read quite some articles for example on Scientific
American about the problems of language conservation that the
researchers are facing. And I think that wiki can be a technical way for
them.
But the classic chinese is another case. Classic chinese is a dead
language, and to write about the modern Olympic games with such a
language is simply original research. It has nothing to do with language
conservation.