[Wikipedia-l] Languages: crossing a border?

[Andre Engels]

"Peter Jaros" <rjaros at shaysnet.com> schrieb:

> > Actually, I think these might be too inclusive when looking at dead
> > languages. While I am all for the Latin Wikipedia, and would not mind
> > a Sanskrit one, Hittite or Sumerian are another matter. Many dead
> > languages are only in passive use, and to exclude those, I would
> > like to restrict ourselves to those languages in which (new) documents
> > have been written within the last 50 years or so.
> 
> I agree instinctively with your point, but I must ask: why exactly?  If 
> a group
> of speakers can maintain a Wikipedia in that language, isn't that 
> requirement
> enough? 

Yes, that should be enough, but I think it would be good to get prima
facie evidence that they can. And such evidence would I think best be
"Well, we (or others) have already written articles in this language."

Andre Engels