[Wikipedia-l] Saterlandic Frisian Wikipedia + thoughts on smalllanguage wikipedias in general

[Boris Lohnzweiger]

Hello Wouter !

How neat you have that proverb in the Netherlands, too! Maybe I should emphasize that my evaluation of the Frisian nature was in no way meant negatively. They are industrious, reliable folks with a sense of humour of their own and a sense of pride that has served them well throughout many centuries. Issues for which people in areas further down in the south might need half an hour of discussion are solved with two or three words. I certainly like them and only wanted to point out that there is a certain let's say cautious character trait. Of course even I ; ) have realised that the world is changing and certainly Internet connectivity and usage in western Europe is basically the same in rural areas as it is in big cities. 
>From what you are writing I can tell that you are very well informed about the situation of Seeltersk and therefore your proposal is on more solid ground than many others. Furthermore, what you have achieved so far in the Limburgish edition makes it appear even more well-founded.

While many of the concerns I mentioned earlier today about starting Wikipedias for very small languages persist, I nevertheless wish you all the best for your efforts!

Boris


wikipedia-l at Wikimedia.org schrieb am 07.03.05 18:01:33:

Hi Boris,

Thanks for your reply, both to my and to Mark's messages. There is however 
one thing I might disagree with you.

You compared the rural community of Seeltersk speakers with the Hopi people 
and pointed out that "Wat de boer niet kent, dat (vr)eet hij niet" (this 
proverb is also known in Dutch). Of course they are generally conservative; 
indeed, the conservative nature of the Saterfrisians might have saved the 
language from extinction for centuries!
But you might forget that the world is changing, and that even rural areas, 
at least in Western Europe, become completely emancipated: a farmer is no 
longer someone whose world ends with the borders of his farmyard. At least 
some of them must be willing to join the project (elder people get 
increasingly connected to the internet ;-)), and quite all of them are 
nowadays aware of the unique status of their language and the necessity to 
preserve it and to promote it outside their own community.

Moreover, there are nowadays many youngsters who know the language. Not from 
their parents, who mostly raised them in Low Saxon with only very few 
exceptions, but at school (in the 90s schools started projects to learn 
their pupils Seelters), or from (one of) their grandparents, and they use it 
as a second language, maybe sometimes even as a first language (cf. similar 
movemens on the Isle of Man, or in French Flanders). These people can very 
well be persuated to join the project.

Wouter

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