[Wikipedia-l] About creating a new language on Wikipedia

[GerardM]

Hoi,
Considering what you say, you provide a perfect argument why NOT to localise
the user interface of an extinct language. So far we have always insisted on
a localised UI.
Thanks,
    GerardM

On 7/11/07, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at telus.net> wrote:
>
>
> >2007/7/5, GerardM:
> >
> >
> >>In the language committee we are not really happy with artificial
> languages
> >>or with languages long dead that are given a new lease of life because
> "we
> >>can". In dead languages you have to do original research in order to be
> able
> >>to name the concepts that are modern and foreign to that language as we
> know
> >>it. Wikipedia is not about original research and you have to create new
> >>words and in the process change the language in order to write an
> >>encyclopaedia that is to be used in this day and age.
> >>
> >>
> At one time I had an old medical dictionary (ca. 1820), and the entry
> for "cadaver" started with "A cadaver is generally immobile."
> Immobility for these dead languages means that they are no longer able
> to move, and generate new life.  We cannot expect that the new
> terminology that we invent for it will be accepted by the people who
> normally speak that language, because those people don't exist.  Our
> newly invented words do not rise above the level of fantasy.  The
> resulting encyclopedia is indeed to be used in this day and age, but
> only by people who do not exist.
>
> Ec
>
>
>
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