AW: [Wikipedia-l] RE: Welcome to the "Wikipedia-l" mailing list

[André Müller]

Ron H wrote:
> Although the *media* reports the use of Klingon more frequently than
Quenya, 
> I've seen no data to back this up. A quick google search pulls up
133,000 
> hits for Quenya, but only 14,000 hits for tlhIngan (the Klingon
language). 
> That's a considerable difference.


You shall not misinterpret Google to your own advantages. Using Google I
come up with 121,000 "Quenya" results and 983,000 "Klingon" ones. Now
*that* is even more of a difference, isn't it?

And I have to agree with Mark that there are in all likelyhood more
speakers of Klingon than of Quenya (and perhaps even Sindarin). Randomly
running into a Klingonist is more likely than finding someone who can
really say something in Quenya (that is to say, more than just some
phrases from the movies or the books).

Uhm... I might have to add that I'm not really against a Wikipedia in
Quenya, but I fear that in future more and more conlangs might ask for a
Wikipedia. Certainly Esperanto, Volapük or Interlingua isn't point of
objection, but I understand that Klingon was (although I support it
widely).

I was once one of the contributers to the tlhIngan Hol wIqIpe'Diya, and
I must admit that it somewhat lost its appeal for me, for no special
reason. It's not difficult or hard to translate or write articles in
Klingon, it's fun, it's widening one's knowledge of the language and I
actually did enjoy writing articles for it. I'd still do, but private
reasons keep me from that... and I wonder why other Klingonists don't
contribute (or seldomly do).

There is no guarantee that it'll be different for the Quenya Wikipedia.
It was the same for the Volapük one (for which I also wrote some
entries), as well as for many natural language.


*My* biggest problems with the Klingon Wikipedia were the following two
issues:

a) What to do with proper names like "America", "Peking" or "George
Bush"? Should they be kept in their English equivalent (since in Star
Trek, Klingons had more contact with English speakers) and just be
italicized or marked {otherwise}? Or should they be klingonified and
adepted to the Klingon way of syllabic writing, such as "'amerIqa",
"peyqIng", "jorIj buS"? And if yes, then should geographic names be
klingonified in their own language's way or by the English way? Should
it be "peyqIng" and "'InDIya" or "beyjIng" and "barat" instead?

b) What to do with words that don't exist in Klingon/Quenya? I usually
tried to make them up from other words, like "browser" ---> "page
viewer" and so on. Using loan words like "bIrawSer" or even "browser" I
consider inappropriate.

Granted, these issues need not come up until the Wikipedia is created
and editable, but I think it's worth mentioning...

That's all, just wanted to bring up some constructive criticism.

- André (N-true)