[Foundation-l] Allow new wikis in extinct languages?

[Alastair Haines]

Wikimedia Foundation mission
to "provide the sum of human knowledge to every human being".

Sometimes people ask me how many languages I know, because they hear me using 
several. My answer is that I can say "hello, please and thank you" in many 
languages, but can only speak English properly. I then add that I can *read* 
many more languages than I can speak, but most of these are dead languages.

So, I am better at *listening* to dead people than *speaking* to living ones.

But why is this so?
Why do I spend so much time listening to dead people?

It is because I want *knowledge*, that only they can tell me.

But my point is this.

AnCiEnT LaNgUaGeS ArE NoT DeAd.

They are not *spoken* any more, but many of them are READ every day. They are 
read for the sake of knowledge -- unique perspectives on human life. And 
believe me, much is lost in translation. These languages have their own subtle 
ways of saying things -- it's awesome!

If Wiki, as I hope, relaxes its stance on exclusively WRITTEN languages, indeed 
these will be demonstrably living entities, written and read every day, with an 
edit history to prove it! 

It is precisely because many written (not dead) languages are still alive, 
still understood, still bearing information, that people want to join with 
others in using them. If this language community is small, it is still 
volunteering its own services, what does it cost Wiki? Why discriminate against 
a minority group on the grounds they do not speak their language?

End prejudice! End censorship!

Give WRITTEN languages their voice!

No more discriminatory speaker-ism!
No more rude words like "dead" languages!

Aiding the growth of knowledge of written languages _by their use_ is a very 
progressive project, and Wiki an ideal medium for it.

This decision is even more profound than transcribing reliable sources, to aid 
human knowledge.