On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 11:51:18 -0700, Mark Williamson node.ue@gmail.com wrote:
Also, one major difference between Solresol/Frater and languages such as Catalan, Occitan, Alsatian (now transformed into the Alemannic wikipedia), Breton, etc which already have Wikipedias is this: Solresol and Frater are "constructed languages" with no native speakers. They are not "minority languages" like these other languages, they are in a different category completely. There are 0 people who can read or write Solresol or Frater better than any natural language.
While I generally see your point, I would advise against being too hasty on this point: I'm told, much to my surprise, that a few people are actually brought up speaking Esperanto as a first language; and on the other side, many "minority languages" will be *so* minority that most - if not, in some cases, all - users of the language will actually more often use, and thus be more proficient in, another, more mainstream language. This is true, for instance, of languages that are being "saved from extinction" by enthusiasts, and which may therefore be insufficient for any speaker, however proficient, to use as their *primary* tongue.
So the distinction may not be so clear cut as you make out: there are "constructed languages" for which there are "native" speakers, and there are probably "minority languages" which are nobody's "mother tongue".
Which all rather strengthens calls to take each proposed language on its own terms.