[Foundation-l] A dangerous precedent

[Ray Saintonge]

Nathan wrote:
> I think that preserving a language is a good goal, but it is one that
> Wikipedia is not well suited for and is not intended to fulfill.
> Creating an automatically translated article on every city and town in
> the US is not a way to 'preserve' a constructed or dead language. If
> the point is to aggregate knowledge in a way that is accessible to as
> many people as possible, how does a Wikipedia in a constructed
> language (a code, really) serve that point? 
While Wikipedia, where we have original writing, is not best suited to 
these small languages, the same is not the case for some sister 
projects, notabnly Wiktionary, Wikibooks and Wikisource.  Constructed 
languages need to be viewed differently from dead or endangered 
languages, because most of them need to have a culture constructed as 
well as a language.
> Additionally, someone
> mentioned that there are present native speakers of Latin. I'd be
> interested to find out who these folks are.
>   
I don't know if their are actual native speakers.  Having a top-level 
domain of ".va" indicates a country that frowns upon procreation.  Latin 
does remain as an language that is used there.  Also if you look at what 
is available facing the title page of the Harry Potter books, somebody 
is intent on translating them into Latin.


Ec