AW: [Wikipedia-l] Quenya language

Sun Feb 13 18:56:08 UTC 2005

Ron H wrote:

> No, it isn't, Andre :) . It's a difference of a factor of 10, which is
the 
same as my results. Only thing is: "Klingon" is the name of both the
*race* 
and the *language*. Quenya is only the name of the language. So
naturally 
'Klingon' gets more hits. To me, THAT seems a misinterpretation.

[...]

Hmm... okay, I see your point. But then again, I think it's difficult in
that matter to really estimate how many resources on the net mention the
Klingon language and which one mention Quenya as a language.
Quenya refers only to the language, so it's valuable. Klingon refers to
the language, the species, the individuals and it's the general adverb
as well. In fact, the word "tlhIngan" does this as well (just in another
language), but "Quenya" covers the name for the language in most other
languages (it's Quenya in English, Quenya, German, French, etc.) while
"tlhIngan (Hol)" is only in the Klingon language. And on the other hand,
it's "Klingonisch" in German and as far as I know, other language also
have different names for it.
I think Google doesn't prove much here.

As for the words, thing is that many Quenya sites just list the words or
some of them just for interest. You know, for those who want to have an
Elvish name. For Klingon that's seldom the case, I'd say. I'm also sure
that counterproofs can be found, which have more hits in Klingon than in
Quenya.
So Google might not be that helpful here, either.

> I can certainly understand that fear. Let me ask: how many conlangs
have 
devoted followings with workable languages (ie, a fairly full
vocabulary: 
approximately 10,000 words) and enough scholarly source material 
(dictionaries, primers, etc) to back up translations? And people who
speak 
the tongue fluently who are willing to contribute many articles to 
wikipedia? I actually don't know, but I suspect there can't be very
many. 
All JMHO, of course. And I could be wrong.

Hm, 'fullness' (is that a word?) of vocabulary isn't always the main
point. Volapük has a quite large vocabulary, also modern words. I own a
good (but antique) Volapük dictionary myself. Still there are more
Klingon entries than Volapük ones, although Klingon only has about 2750
words. Probably because Volapük isn't very well-known, not sure...

And the next question:
If you support a Quenya Wikipedia, would you also vote for a Sindarin
one? That might be soon point of discussion too, if the Quenya one will
be granted.

I'm not really sure if I should be for or against it, but in my opinion,
Quenya and Sindarin have about the same status as Klingon.

Greetings,
- André