On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 1:53 PM, Gerard Meijssen gerard.meijssen@gmail.com wrote:
This specific character mentioned in the article is used to write the Tanimuca-Retuarã language. This is specified in the article. itself.
Ethnologue says it has 300 speakers, if I'm reading it correctly:
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=tnc
With a literacy rate of 5% or less, I guess that works out to 15 people in the world who can actually read or write it? If I'm reading the figures correctly, Tanimuca-Retuarã is drastically below the threshold where there can be any serious question of creating educational resources in the language, so I really don't think Wikimedia needs to concern itself with it.
In any event, we are talking about an article on the *English* Wikipedia, and what the *English* Wikipedia should do when this situation arises. I made no comment on anything relating to anyone trying to write Tanimuca-Retuarã, which nobody is on the English Wikipedia. It's a non sequitur.
Languages that need characters that are missing in fonts that are in general use are not isolated affairs. In the end there is only one solution; we should be part of a solution that allows us to show all characters.
Those who want to help building fonts can feel free to do so. It will not change the fact that as Unicode expands, support for new additions will be gradual, and wikis need to figure out something to do when a character is not well supported by their viewers.