[Foundation-l] Signal languages Wikimedia projects

[Andre Engels]

On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 11:09 AM, Gerard Meijssen
<gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:

> The same arguments that apply to people who speak languages like Yoruba and
> Sango apply to any of the sign languages.. People who are deaf and sign are
> better served when equal information is available in their sign language.

Only if it is presented in a way they find easier to understand than
written English (or whatever other language). From what I read in this
thread, a sign language Wikipedia for many signers will be as useless
as the Yiddish Wikipedia is for someone who speaks Yiddish, but has
learned reading and writing in his second language which does not use
Hebrew script.

> When people are motivated to work on "their" wikipedia, they do this for
> their own reasons. When their motivation is that it develops and promotes
> their language, it is something that is very much particular to them. When
> well written articles are available for any language, it does indeed promote
> and develops that language. It is the consequence of quality work. In my
> opinion it is something we should seek for any language. When people argue
> that great texts will develop their language, it is therefore a positive
> argument not a negative one.

If people work on a language for such a reason, it is of course fine
with me, but it is not what, from the POV of the Wikimedia Foundation,
the wiki is for. It is, in my opinion, at most a byproduct (is that an
English word?).

-- 
André Engels, andreengels at gmail.com