[Foundation-l] UNIQUE AND WORKABLE CRITERION

[Ray Saintonge]

Philippe Beaudette wrote:
> Ray Saintonge wrote:
>   
>> Crazy Lover wrote:
>>     
>>>    Languages
>>>
>>>   * what kind of languages can have wikis?
>>>
>>>   any that has a standarized writing system and enough writers and
>>>  readers to form a viable community and audience. whether a particular
>>>  language qualifies depends on discussion.
>>>
>>>   i thinks, it is a simple and workable criterion to start a unitary and 
>>> congruent policy.
>>>
>>>   once again, what do you think?
>>>       
>> Standardized writing systems can present a problem when you consider the
>> first nations languages of the west coast of North America.  Many of the
>> writing system were devised by anthropologists from around 1900, and
>> were never intended to serve the speakers of the language.
>>     
> Affirmed.  I think particularly of some native languages that have a decent 
> number of speakers, but very few who write.  In my home state of Oklahoma 
> there are some tribes in exactly that position.  Yet, I think it's dangerous 
> to ignore the potential role of a wikipedia or wiktionary in educating those 
> speakers and turning them into writers.  For instance, I can see an elder in 
> the Yuchi Tribe, for instance, who might assign the class to write 
> wiktionary definitions in Yuchi as part of a language assignment.  That 
> serves two goals: it grows community for a Wiki, and also helps to save a 
> dying language.
This leads to another important point.  It's not simply about the 
criteria for having a wiki, but about the criteria for a specific kind 
of wiki.  A Wikisource for a pre-literate language that has no available 
material is pointless.  The arguments for a Wikisource in a dead but 
literate language are much stronger.

Wiktionaries serve a different purpose, and thus merit different criteria.

One is dreaming if he expects that the Yuchi Wikipedia will have a wide 
range of scientific articles anytime soon, but it would be a great 
medium for developing material related to Yuchi culture.  Those involved 
can write scientific articles if they want, but that's not where the 
real value of those wikipedias will be found.

Ec