[Foundation-l] Shavian Wikis

[Robert Scott Horning]

Joe wrote:

>On 2/11/05 5:50 PM, "Brion Vibber" <brion at pobox.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>Tok Pisin is a creole language which is spoken natively by actual
>>people. The 'Simple English' Wikipedia was created long, long ago and to
>>this day it's unclear what its intended mission is.
>>    
>>
>
>If the English loanwords in Tok Pisin were spelled the same as their English
>origins, much of it would be mutually intelligible.  Besides the slight
>difference in grammar and various words from other languages, the biggest
>difference is in spelling.  This isn't meant to be an exact match,
>though--just an example.  I recognize the difference.
>
>  
>
I've had a chance to hear native speakers of Tok Pisin.  For a native 
English speaker, it is a really bizzare experience, because you start 
listening to them speak, and you think you understand about 50%-60% of 
what they are speaking due to familiar words.  Then suddenly as you 
start listening a bit more you discover that you are completely lost and 
don't even have a clue as to what is being said.  From my own linguistic 
experience, I would have to say that I understand a native German 
speaker due to cognates better than I understand a native Tok Pisin speaker.

If you are trying to determine if a language is truly unique enough to 
justify having it as a seperate language wiki on Wikipedia, Tok Pisin 
clearly fits the bill with some very different language structures than 
are commonly found in English, and IMHO qualifies as a seperate 
language.  Certainly as different as between Dutch or German or between 
Spanish and Portuguese, and perhaps more so.

The only hesitation to creating it as a language Wikipedia is sheer 
number of participants able to contribute content, and at the moment I'm 
not volunteering.  It does appear, however, that roughly 26 people have 
already volunteered to add content to the current Tok Pisin Wikipedia 
and about 60 articles. ( http://tpi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page )

-- 
Robert Scott Horning
218 Sunstone Circle
Logan, UT 84321
(435) 753-3330
robert_horning at netzero.net