If you could organize an active crowd of serious contributors, and have them write the first 3000 articles offline, and good articles, I think the Wikimedia board would find it very hard to refuse your request. So the answer would be "yes", such requests could be granted. And the new Town Frisian Wikipedia would be just past the Icelandic, which now has 2500 articles. But if you want to start a Wikipedia that never gets beyond 20 articles, you would instead find it very hard to convince the Wikimedia board. So the limit is somewhere in between. How strong are your arguments?
3000 articles off line is too much, it is the fun of contributers, especially new ones, that their edits are immediately visible and accessible for anyone. But I will certainly try to find willing contributers first. On the other hand, I might gain little willing contributers if they can't be sure the encyclopedia will ever be a real wikipedia. How strong are my arguments? You mean for granting them a wikipedia for themselves? Well, some basic dates about both regional languages then:
Town Frisian Mixed language, spoken in the Dutch province of Friesland, in towns. Originated around 1500, when Frisian had little prestige. Akin dialects in some rural areas. Total number of speakers (Ameland, Bildt, Heereveen and Midsland dialects incl.): 100,000 Differences from Dutch: maintanance of the pronoun 'þu' (realised 'dou') whereas Dutch dropped it; retention of [i] and [y] instead of the modern diphthongs [Ei] and [Ey]; maintanace of inlaut [f] and [s] rather than weakened [v] and [z]; absence of the prefix ge- in past participles; a lot of Frisian loan words; predominantly Frisian idiom; typical Frisian pronunciation (with a.o. nasalisations of n's between vowels and consonants). Best described as Frisian in Dutch disguise.
Zeelandic Regional language in southeast of the Netherlands, spoken mainly in rural areas (replaced by Dutch proper in towns). Total number of speakers: at least 250,000 Differences from Dutch: three genders rather than two, maintenance of the old [i] and [y] rather than breaking into [Ei] and [Ey] (see above under Town Frisian), consewuent mutation of the [a:] into [E:]; rendering of old Germanic ai and au as [e@] and [O@], not [ei] and [ou] as in Dutch; maintenance of final schwas; consequent dropping of the h.
Would that be enough?
Wouter
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