[Wikipedia-l] Re: Quenya language request

[Boris Lohnzweiger]

I fully agree with Chad. Speaking out against more wikipedias in fictional languages shouldn't be confused with speaking out against those languages in general. I mean, many of them certainly are products of great creativity and therefore have a value of their own. 

But, a the end of the day, what is (or should be) an encyclopedia all about?  My definition is: a _comprehensive_ source of information. Now I'm afraid neither Klingon nor Quenyan nor any other fictional language wikipedia will ever achieve that status. Matter of fact, I think even most International auxiliary language wikipedias which have been set up so far won't get there. 

So after all, those fantasy language wikipedias would all end up being creative playgrounds for small circles of people. Which surely woundn't be a bad thing. But would that really fit into the concept of this great project? Or wouldn't it rather harm Wikipedia's reputation as a reliable, comprehensive source of information (i. e. not fiction)?

Boris



Chad Perrin wrote:

> Good points.

> I think the most important criterion, though, should probably be this:
> Will there be people interested in researching in the language?

> I strongly suspect this is why the Klingon Wikipedia is a marginal
> failure. As a concept, it sounds great, and it's true that there are
> some fluent and literate speakers of Klingon, but when the chips are
> down even the Klingon speakers will be doing their research in English,
> or French, or German, or whatever other language they use in their
> day-to-day lives to get by in the world.

> Interest and fluency aren't really enough for a successful reference
> work. You also need it to be useful, or it won't sustain and increase
> its pool of interest.

> Personally, I'd rather see the various Elvish languages of Middle-Earth
> in Wikipedia than Klingon, and I'd be more likely to use it than
> Ossetian, but frankly I think Ossetian might have a place in Wikipedia
> at the present time, and Quenya really doesn't (in my estimation).

> Then again, maybe that's just me.

> --
> Chad
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