[Wikimediaindia-l] Supporting the languages of India

[Bala Jeyaraman]

+1 with Ravi

*For example, a year back a wrong proposal was sent to Unicode consortium
that wanted Grantha script being encoded in Unicode but at the expense of
damaging Tamil language in long term.

*The incident Ravi mentions came about because of a similar situation -
faulty understanding by external organisations that failed to consult with
native language communities. Led to months long discussions, wasting
everyone's time - just because the unicode consortium didnt pause to check
with the stakeholder community.

*Language in India and a citizen's involvement with his language is
complex, diverse and many times unusual or interesting.*

+1 to this too. In India where various hues of linguistic nationalism are
dominant (especially in the south for languages like Tamil) and language
heritage is long and linguistic pride is fierce, a WMF blogpost with such
words and one that suggests at changing how language should be used has the
potential to turn into a long drawn out and ugly dramafest.  when i said
"burnt in effigy" in the earlier mail, i meant it literally - the passion
that language generates in this part of the world is such.

On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 8:35 PM, Ravishankar <ravidreams at gmail.com> wrote:

> Ashwin,
>
> On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 8:08 PM, Ashwin Baindur <ashwin.baindur at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> The aggressive/offended tone in a couple of posts on this thread
>> distresses me. I humbly request that all respondents may please tone down
>> any agression you may feel. Gerard is trying to understand Indian culture
>> in good faith. He has made some assumptions that he is keen to explore. May
>> I request that we please discuss maturely without getting offended? We need
>> to not only AGF but be CIVIL also. The same points can also be made
>> politely.
>>
>
> Every time there is a difference of opinion, some one starts this be CIVIL
> message. I don't feel anything un-CIVIL in anyone's message. So, please
> don't distract the TOPIC.
>
> Srikanth,
>
> //You need to work with someone who knows the language to the purest of
> its form, knows it in and out, and also knows technology. I doubt you'd've
> come across MANY of those at either WCI or the Hackathon.//
>
> While I agree with your view that even people not well versed in one
> language can donate their technical skills, it is important that the
> project as a whole takes in to account the views of people who know the
> language well.
>
> For example, a year back a wrong proposal was sent to Unicode consortium
> that wanted Grantha script being encoded in Unicode but at the expense of
> damaging Tamil language in long term. The Central Government passed it to
> Unicode consortium and it was about to approve it. Only at the last moment
> could we intervene and after months of discussion and wasting precious
> hours by both Sanskrit scholars and Tamil scholars + Technocrats, the
> proposal was held. If only Unicode consortium or Central Government had
> asked for the opinion of learned scholars of language, this situation could
> have been avoided. So, while lack of proficiency in a language need not be
> an impediment for technical contribution, we should not assume that it is
> enough for projects of varying nature.
>
> Ravi
>
>
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