[Foundation-l] Ancient Greek Wikipedia

[Milos Rancic]

Actually, any ancient language is a valid communication tool between
people who know that language. By accident, I am learning now Ancient
Greek and an information which I may get by reading an article about
Proxima Centaur would be valid to me as I read it in Serbian or
English or whichever language.

So, please, don't try to use wrong linguistic or semiotic arguments in
trying to rationalize your political positions. (It is not only
related to you personally.) There is no reasonable *scientific* reason
why to forbid Wikipedia in some *used* language to exist. The only way
in which you may to ask for the sense of working on such languages is
related to our capacities and (not yet defined) priorities; which I
described in a separate thread.

On Sun, Apr 13, 2008 at 10:43 AM, Ilario Valdelli <valdelli at gmail.com> wrote:
> IMHO it's not a problem of neologisms but the problem is that using died
>  languages you miss the purpose of diffusion and divulgation of Wikipedia.
>
>  Why you write in Wikipedia? You write in Wikipedia because other people
>  can read your texts and your articles, because your aim is the
>  widespread of knowledge.
>
>  Perfect... an open project of Wikipedia *must* have got writers and
>  readers. Your aim is the communication and your mean is a wiki and for
>  this reason your communication is a *written* communication.
>
>  Using a died language probably you miss this aim because you don't have
>  readers: you write in Wikipedia in a died language only for you, for
>  your satisfaction.
>
>  You can have a small number of readers but, probably, if they must
>  choose an article in old Greek, for example, or in their own language,
>  they will choose the second one.
>
>  What Gerard is saying is that a language is a *living* language and this
>  language changes, it has an evolution. Using a died language you are
>  using an *artificial* language and not a live language because you
>  choose a version of this language (the Old Greek for example has
>  different koiné) and you probably translate articles. Not only you
>  translate but probably you can have a lot of discussions about the
>  translation because no one can decide the correct version because there
>  are not speakers... the *grammar becomes philology*.
>
>  IMHO the died languages cannot follow the aim of Wikipedia, but they can
>  be the source for other projects where the aim is strongly based on
>  translation. The aim is not the widespread of knowledge. In this project
>  the aim can be the *knowledge of translation*, here people can share
>  informations and discussions about the died languages used.
>
>  Ilario
>
>
>  Dovi Jacobs wrote:
>  > GerardM strongly feels the following,
>  > an argument he has made countless times
>  > as the reason the Ancient Greek Wikipedia
>  > was cancelled (even after being approved
>  > with the sole remaining condition of finishing
>  > the interface translation):
>  >
>  >
>  >
>
>
>
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