André Müller wrote:
As Andre Engels already made clear, neither the ISO
code nor the SIL
list can be taken for granted in all cases, regarding what we actually
look for in their lists. He gave good examples, and so did Tim Starling.
In fact, my opinion on this topic is, that we should use both the ISO
and the SIL when we’re unsure again whether to allow a certain language
or not. What were the 3 artificial languages on Ethnologue again?
Esperanto, Interlingua and... Europanto or something, I don’t remember.
Well, we have a Volapük Wikipedia, to which I and some others even
contribute, from time to time. Volapük is not included in the SIL index
but in the ISO codes. That’d be a pro.
Thus, if the language can be found in either the ISO or the SIL list, it
has a right to exist. But we should still consider each new language if
there are enough contributors for it. Maybe 3 or 5 could be enough. That
would speak for Klingon as well – there is an ISO code (tlh), there are
more than just 3 or 5 contributors, and the vocabulary and grammar is
large enough as well (a fact that in my opinion doesn’t really apply for
Sindarin/Quenya, for example). I don’t know off-hand which other
constructed languages could be found in the ISO codes (too lazy to look
it up now ;)), but I doubt that there are more „fictional“ languages
besides Klingon.
And Toki Pona is wiki-fied already – it’d be unfair to remove it now, if
it’s included in ISO/SIL or not.
Okay, I think you understand my point.
I too would take this position. The presence of a language on either the
SIL or ISO lists is still only the basis for a "prima facie" decision to
accept or reject. In the absence of further decision we could act on
that as long as we are convinced that we have at least one person who
can do the work. With many Native American languages we would likely be
delighted to have a single hard-working proponent.
Ec