[Foundation-l] Preservation of cultural diversity and minority languages

[daniwo59 at aol.com]

Snipped long debate: 
 
For all the comments about preserving languages, no--that is not the goal  of 
Wikipedia or any of the other WMF project. In other words, if there is  one 
Eyak speaker left, it is not the goal of the WMF to teach people Eyak so  that 
they can then write encyclopedias and other reference works in Eyak for  
future generations of a vibrant Eyak community to be.
 
With reference to Upper, Lower, Middle, or Lost in Limbo Sorbian (or any  
other such language), while I quote from memory, the foundation's goal is to  
create reference works for people "in their own languages." In other words, as  
long as there is a viable body of speakers, it would merit a wikipedia and 
other  projects. NB, that is not to say that we should put fundraising campaigns 
on  hold until the fundraising interface is translated into Sorbian, etc.
 
Danny
 
PS. Marie Smith Jones, the last native Eyak speaker, died less than a month  
ago, on January 21, 2008, so the above example is moot. But, you get my point  
... (See _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Smith_Jones_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Smith_Jones) )



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