Hello Wouter !
How neat you have that proverb in the Netherlands, too! Maybe I should emphasize that my
evaluation of the Frisian nature was in no way meant negatively. They are industrious,
reliable folks with a sense of humour of their own and a sense of pride that has served
them well throughout many centuries. Issues for which people in areas further down in the
south might need half an hour of discussion are solved with two or three words. I
certainly like them and only wanted to point out that there is a certain let's say
cautious character trait. Of course even I ; ) have realised that the world is changing
and certainly Internet connectivity and usage in western Europe is basically the same in
rural areas as it is in big cities.
From what you are writing I can tell that you are very
well informed about the situation of Seeltersk and therefore your proposal is on more
solid ground than many others. Furthermore, what you have achieved so far in the
Limburgish edition makes it appear even more well-founded.
While many of the concerns I mentioned earlier today about starting Wikipedias for very
small languages persist, I nevertheless wish you all the best for your efforts!
Boris
wikipedia-l(a)Wikimedia.org schrieb am 07.03.05 18:01:33:
Hi Boris,
Thanks for your reply, both to my and to Mark's messages. There is however
one thing I might disagree with you.
You compared the rural community of Seeltersk speakers with the Hopi people
and pointed out that "Wat de boer niet kent, dat (vr)eet hij niet" (this
proverb is also known in Dutch). Of course they are generally conservative;
indeed, the conservative nature of the Saterfrisians might have saved the
language from extinction for centuries!
But you might forget that the world is changing, and that even rural areas,
at least in Western Europe, become completely emancipated: a farmer is no
longer someone whose world ends with the borders of his farmyard. At least
some of them must be willing to join the project (elder people get
increasingly connected to the internet ;-)), and quite all of them are
nowadays aware of the unique status of their language and the necessity to
preserve it and to promote it outside their own community.
Moreover, there are nowadays many youngsters who know the language. Not from
their parents, who mostly raised them in Low Saxon with only very few
exceptions, but at school (in the 90s schools started projects to learn
their pupils Seelters), or from (one of) their grandparents, and they use it
as a second language, maybe sometimes even as a first language (cf. similar
movemens on the Isle of Man, or in French Flanders). These people can very
well be persuated to join the project.
Wouter
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