Merritt L. Perkins wrote:
What languages? All languages! Do you mean that you want to include Encyclopedia articles on all languages. There are so many obscure languages that you cannot expect to include them all. What languages should the Encyclopedia be translated into? I think that you should choose languages that would have many readers. High German, French and Spanish for example. There is a difference between this French spoken in France and in Canada, in the Spanish spoken in Spain and in Mexico. There are special characters used to write the languages. Basque, Maori, and Manx would have few readers. The language should be easily written from a computer keyboard. This would exclude Arabic and Chinese. There must be some way to write them but I don’t know how. It may require a special keyboard and software. The head of the modern language department of a large German university may be fluent in several languages and able to teach about subjects from the Kavala to Xenophon’s Anabasis. He may have served in the Army and be familiar with Army terminology and idioms, but not familiar with submarines, ships, or airplanes. The translator should be a native speaker thoroughly familiar with the subject of the article and may choose to write his own article instead of translating the existing article. I find no objection to including articles written or translated into Icelandic, Hungarian, or any other language even though there would be few readers. Readers need to know where to find them Merritt L. Perkins
timewarp much? all this stuff is already happening!