It's not "their own language".
I can read, write, and speak Japanese to a sufficient degree that I can read articles in Japanese, but it's not "my language".
For example, do you think Anthere considers English to be her language? Definitely not.
Similarly Ngugi wa Thiong'o (formerly known as James Ngugi), winner of a nobel prize for his writing, would tell you that neither English nor Swahili -- his language is Gikuyu (ki.wikipedia.org, which just recently got its mainpage translated, but still has 0 pages... it has redlinks to pages about television, democracy, and the like though), the language of his mother, his father, his home.
The language of former Japanese Diet member Shigeru Kayano is similarly not Japanese nor English. If you ask him what his language is, he will tell you that his language is Ainu without taking a moment to think.
Susan Aglukark (Inuktitut "Susan Aglukkaq"), famous Canadian singer, will tell you that "her language" is Inuktitut -- not English or French -- the language of her hearth, of her family, of the arctic.
Patrick Pearse would've told you "his language" was not English but Irish.
Joseph Stalin (Georgian "Ioseb Jugashvili") may not be admired by everybody, but nevertheless he is a well-known figure and "his language" was not Russian but Georgian -- the language of his family, his ancestors.
Joe Shirley, president of the Navajo Nation, will tell you that English is not "his language" -- although he can speak it well, "his language" and the language of his people is Dine bizaad, "the language of the humans".
Vivian Juan-Saunders, the first ever female leader of the Tohono O'odham Nation (the US part of which is about the size of Connecticut), will tell you that "her language" and the language of the Nation is 'O'Odham Ni'ok -- again "the language of humans".
"their language" could've been a bit ambiguous, but you said "their own language" -- their OWN language -- which goes deeper and implies more strongly that it truly belongs to them.
Mark
On 10/06/05, Jimmy Wales jwales@wikia.com wrote:
Mark Williamson wrote:
You said, and I quote, "It is my intention to get a copy of Wikipedia to every single person on the planet in their own language."
"In their own language" is unambiguous. Ngugi wa Thiong'o's "own language" is Gikuyu. He can read English very well, and Swahili very well. He would be able to read those Wikipedias. But they are not "in his own language".
If you can competently read a language, it's "your own language".
In terms of an actual practical definition of success, we have to use something like 99.9% or 99.99%, because there will always be a handful of quirky situations leftover.
Let me put it this way. If I die young (100 years from now ;-)) having only gotten a free encyclopedia to 99.99% percent of the people in the world, I won't feel that I've failed.
--Jimbo