[Wikipedia-l] The Borders of Language Variety Tolerance

[Mark Williamson]

You said, and I quote, "It is my intention to get a copy of Wikipedia
to every single person on the planet in their own language."

"In their own language" is unambiguous. Ngugi wa Thiong'o's "own
language" is Gikuyu. He can read English very well, and Swahili very
well. He would be able to read those Wikipedias. But they are not "in
his own language".

Mark

On 09/06/05, Jimmy Wales <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
> (Wouter asked me privately to please personally comment on this thread,
> so I will.)
> 
> Wouter Steenbeek wrote:
> > Could requests
> > for wikipedias in Zeelandic and Town Frisian be granted.
> 
> Not knowing anything about these two particular variants, I am unable to
> make a proper guess or judgment.
> 
> This thread has done a very good job I think of discussing some or most
> of the factors that should properly go into a decision such as this.
> 
> We are currently inconsistent in our treatment of different linguistic
> situations.  I do not think this inconsistency is good, but I also do
> not think it is a grave crisis.  I am not even certain that consistency
> is desirable -- there may not be a "one size fits all" solution to this
> question.
> 
> One thing I think we can all agree upon: there is a difference between
> us *needing* a certain language in order to fulfill our global vision of
> a free encyclopedia for every single person on the planet (in a language
> they can easily enough understand) and us *wanting* a certain language
> in order to fulfill a secondary goal of language preservation and
> support for minority communities.
> 
> "Every single person on the planet" is a bit of rhetoric, but a serious
> bit of rhetoric.  I will feel that this mission is complete if we have
> an encyclopedia written in enough languages so that 99.99% of all people
> _who are able to read in some language_ can read a Wikipedia.
> 
> Let me take as an example Welsh.  I am happy that we have a Welsh
> wikipedia.  But it is all true that virtually every Welsh reader can
> also read English.  Therefore, to meet our *central* mission, English
> does the trick for Welsh speakers.  And for this *secondary* goal, Welsh
> is a nice thing to have too.
> 
> Are all people who could read Zeelandic and Town Frisian also people who
> can read standard Dutch?  Then we don't *need* them for our primary
> mission, but they would be a nice thing to have as well, if it makes
> social sense for the community.  (Meaning, if there are enough people
> who want to do it, etc.)
> 
> --Jimbo
> 
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