[Foundation-l] A simple question on languages.

[Gregory Maxwell]

On Jan 24, 2008 11:21 PM, Jussi-Ville Heiskanen <cimonavaro at gmail.com> wrote:
> So please be explicit. You want to definitively challenge the mission
> set by Jimbo. Worded as:
> "an effort to create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest
> possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language".
> ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia#Language_editions )

I don't want to change anything at all about what we do... but rather
I don't want to continue to see arguments about language continue
without nary a fact in sight.

This is a basic question I've asked. It may not be an *easy* question,
but it is a basic one... and without having at least an approximate
answer to work from we can't hope to make rational decisions. No
wonder so many discussions of language around here devolve into racism
and nationalism... if all we have to go on is hunches and emotion.

As far as the old mission goes: What is a person's own language?  I'd
argue that it's the one that they'd prefer to use for a particular
purposes all other things being equal.   Other than knowing that thier
choice would be among the languages they can use I don't think we know
much else without asking them. Claiming that someone prefers a
language simply because of their race, nationality, or location is
bound to be inaccurate, as is typical of racial or national
stereotyping.

> Honestly, I don't get why anyone is wasting time even responding
> to this thread. We aren't gonna change here.

So long as people who advocate multi-lingulism in varrious forms can
not support their positions with data like I've asked for here they
will find it difficult to reach agreement with people for whom
multi-lingulism for multi-lingulisms sake is a lower priority.