[Foundation-l] Fwd: NYTimes.com: African Languages Grow as a Wikipedia Pr...

Mon Aug 28 05:47:58 UTC 2006

daniwo59 at aol.com wrote:
> I have a lot of sympathy and fondness for African languages. However, I  
> think the attitude we are taking is paternalistic. 

Who is?  I have not seen this.

> The same problems exist for  
> languages in many other corners of the world. Identifying this issue as uniquely 
>  "African" is paternalistic and, quite frankly, a tad racist. Why do we not  
> make the same efforts for Khmer (the official language of Cambodia, 66  
> articles), Burmese (the official language of Myanmar, with 32 million speakers,  and 
> just 66 articles), or Assamese (an official language of India with 20  
> million speakers and only 6 articles)?

I think we absolutely ARE taking efforts in ALL parts of the world, 
simultaneously.  I had a meeting in Delhi with someone who is interested 
in pursuing a joint project to develop African languages.

I have no idea who you have in mind who thinks anything racist or 
paternalistic about African languages, but if they do, then they do not 
represent the attitudes of the broad community or me.

--Jimbo