[Wikipedia-l] A proposal for a new language in wikipedia

[Andre Engels]

On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 10:18:09 +0000 Fredrik Adevåg <gadrauhts at hotmail.com> 
wrote:
>I'd like to be responsible for the creation of a wikipediaversion in 
> gothic.
>
>Full name: gothic
>
>Language code: got
>
>Number of speakers: 0
>
>Number of people which has knowledge about gothic: at least 400, probably 
>much more.

I still am very wary about putting Wikipedia in dead languages. Reason is 
that in my opinion the first function of Wikipedia is to bring over the 
information content in the articles; the language, in my opinion, is just a 
means to do this, it should not be a goal in its own. Because, as far as I 
can see, nobody would _prefer_ to have Gothic as the language in which s/he 
gets this information, I don't think having a Gothic Wikipedia aids in this 
goal (and yes, there are languages in which Wikipedia already exists with 
which I have the same objections).

My doubts would be much lessened if you could give me evidence that the 
language is actually used - in the sense of being written/spoken rather than 
just read. I would like to ask this:

Can you specify a body of literature written in Gothic, from recent date 
(say, after World War II)?

Andre Engels