[Foundation-l] Re: [Wikipedia-l] Status of Wikimedia

Mon Nov 14 11:36:24 UTC 2005

Jimbo wrote:

>I want to use a hypothetical example so as to avoid the risk of speaking
>ignorantly on any particular case.  There is no need for a Wikipedia to
>save the "Bostonian" language, because there is no such language.  There
>is, most likely, a Bostonian _accent_, or perhaps (if we are generous) a
>Bostonian _dialect_, but there is no Bostonian _language_.
>This is particularly true if we are speaking of formal written
>Bostonian, the written language of the people of Boston.  It might be
>hard for me to understand the slang of some cabdrivers and bartenders in
>Boston, but I can read their newspapers just fine.

English is, I think, a special case. Look at some newspaper articles
from Jamaica:

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20051114/flair/flair7.html

Are those quotes in English, a dialect or a language? It's just thrown
in the middle there with the expectation that the English-speaking
readers will take it in their stride. I'd go "huh?" but evidently I'd
be wrong to do so.

Half the local dialects in England would probably qualify as European
minor languages if they hadn't been swamped by the south-eastern
version via the BBC.

- d.