[Wikipedia-l] Re: FW: Wikipedia for Old English

[James R. Johnson]

Hey Adam,
	Thanks for the help and kinds words - these are all very good and
important questions.

As for types of articles, I (myself as a writer/contributor to the AS wiki)
would like to start out with simple fact-based articles, perhaps the ones
listed on the "100 articles every wiki should have."  I would hope that
people would contribute articles, either Pokemon, Mario, News, Biography,
whatever.  I have no doubt someone will want to write Anglo-Saxon related
articles, but I'd rather do modern history, some biographies, biology,
technology, etc.  If you'd like to write the Pokemon article, feel free!  Ic
wille þæt séon, gif þu þæt wille wrítan.  There are people who can
contribute readily on the Forum for Old English mailing list, English-L
mailing list, and Old English Made Easy mailing list.

The form of the language would be early West Saxon, as used in the Clark
Hall Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, without the syncopation of endings in
verbs (a more formal syntactic convention).  

The groups are above mentioned, as well as other groups that can be found
with a google search. There is already a terminology page for the technology
terms, as well as many biology and other terms native to the language.  As
Icelandic has created new uses for old words, I'm sure Old English can do
the same (How about an article about a circulwyrde or the symantec fyrweall
rungestreon, or þá Nipponiscan léode (the Japanese people)?).

Does that help?

James

-----Original Message-----
From: wikipedia-l-bounces at Wikimedia.org
[mailto:wikipedia-l-bounces at Wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Adam Bishop
Sent: Friday, August 06, 2004 5:22 PM
To: wikipedia-l at Wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] Re: FW: Wikipedia for Old English

I think an Old English Wikipedia sounds interesting (although I don't know
very much OE myself), and now that you are also discussing Latin, I wanted
to point out a few problems you might encounter (I am an admin on the Latin
Wikipedia):

Most importantly, you should start off by making some guidelines about what
should and should not be included.  The Latin wikipedia is pretty old and
only recently has there been a concerted effort to give it some direction -
I think any new wikipedia in a dead language would benefit from having the
rules first.

For example, you would (I assume) want to have articles about Anglo-Saxon
related topics, but will people also want to write about unrelated subjects?

  Will the stereotypical Pokemon article be allowed?

What form of the language will you use?  For Latin, I think we try to be as
classical as possible, although there is some medieval and neo-Latin there
too.  As far as I understand, the 9th century Wessex dialect is the most
attested form of Anglo-Saxon, right?  Would you accept alternate
spelling/grammar found in other dialects (Northumbrian, perhaps)?

(As a side note, you would probably also want to specifically state that Old
English is not the same as "ye olde English", nor is it Chaucerian or
Shakespearian English, as has been mentioned already.)

Are there groups who still use Old English, from whom you can draw either
contributors or information on where to begin?  Is there any information on
how to use OE words for modern concepts? For Latin it is fairly easy to find
Neo-Latin terms, but what if you want to write about Japan, for example, in
OE? I guess my point is, can OE still be used in a meaningful way, or will
you be limited by existing vocabulary?

I hope these questions/suggestions help, and I hope I can contribute when it
is created!

Adam Bishop


>From: Pierre Abbat <phma at phma.hn.org>
>Reply-To: wikipedia-l at Wikimedia.org
>To: wikipedia-l at Wikimedia.org
>Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] Re: FW: Wikipedia for Old English
>Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 15:40:55 -0400 > >On Thursday 05 August 2004
10:48, Karl Eichwalder wrote:
> > "James R. Johnson" <modean52 at comcast.net> writes:
> > > I guess it's like Latin in being a dead language, but just as
> > > deserving of a Wiki.
> >
> > Encyclopedia writer should try to get the facts right before
posting.
> > Latin is still in use (and it was never dead).  And, more
important, > > Latin something like a sleeping lingua franca.
>
>"Dead" referring to a language means "having no native
speakers". Unlike Manx, >which died with its last native speaker
(but is still in use), Latin died >(but remained in use) when its
descendants differentiated sufficiently that >none of them was Latin,
which can't be pinpointed as precisely.
>
>phma
>--
>li fi'u vu'u fi'u fi'u du li pa
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