[Foundation-l] Fwd: Tokipona

[Andrew Whitworth]

On Jan 21, 2008 11:55 AM, Michael Bimmler <mbimmler at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Kurt Leesmeister <danrike at gmail.com>
> Constructed languages belong to the pool of languages summarized in
> wikipedia. It is true that some languages might not be necessary but
> who should decide this? Languages like volapük, esperanto or ido are
> constructed languages and nobody can say that their importance is
> limited to a few people. The volapük-wikipedia summarizes more than
> 100.000 articles, esperante nearly 95.000 articles, ido reached the
> 15.000 article-limit. Does this mean that a constructed language is
> neglegable? I don't think so. Andrew Whitworth mentioned that a
> language like tokipona doesn't help to improve communication between
> people. Its true that there is nobody who exclusively speaks tokipona
> but who does exclusevely speak esperanto or volapük? This is not only
> limited to constructed languages? Who does exclusevely speak latin?

Good questions, all, and I think it deserves a good reply. As far as I
am concerned, a language (constructed or natural) is worthy of having
a wiki project under one of two conditions:
1) If the language has a large number of natural speakers. A wiki
project can be used to faciliate communication and the sharing of
information among these people
2) If the language has a large number of secondary-speakers. In this
case, the language can be used to faciliate the share of information
between people who are not able to communicate directly using their
natural languages.

Using these two principals, we can completely ignore the distinction
between constructed and natural languages. We have to look at
languages on a case-by-case basis with no bias. Here are some examples
that you pointed out.

Esperanto: Has a relatively large number of secondary speakers, and so
can be used to faciliate communications under #2.

Volapuk: Has no primary and few secondary speakers. Fails both tests,
project should be closed.

Tokapona: Has no primary and few secondary speakers. Fails both tests,
project should be closed.

Latin: Has few (but some) primary speakers, and a large number of
secondary speakers. However, Latin may be problematic for other
reasons besides these. Latin doesnt have words for many "modern"
concepts that are worth discussing, and many people who know latin are
familiar with different forms of latin (latin for catholic mass, dog
latin, etc).

Just because you or I speak a particular language doesnt mean that
it's important in the global sense, or that it is useful in spreading
information. Small languages, including small conlangs and natural
languages, can be a very large barrier to communication simply because
not enough people choose to write it, and few people are able to read
it. Having large numbers of articles, especially poor-quality or
bot-generated articles (especially in the case of Volapuk) is not
really a counter-argument to this point.

--Andrew Whitworth