Are language specific questions on-topic?

Question

Proposal: Planned and Constructed Languages

Sorry if this has come up before, I couldn't find it, but this is the first time I've been "committed" so I might have looked in the wrong places :)

Would questions such as "How could I say [blank] in [blank]?" or "I found this sentence, what does XYZ mean in this context?" be okay to ask here? Like you find on "[blank] Language and Usage" stack sites?

On a related note, would you be able ask questions on learning specific languages "Does anyone have a [blank] anki deck?" or could we point people to other sites designed to do this?

Finally, could this potentially be used to revive dead or dying conlangs?

Sorry for the multiple questions, they seemed to similar to ask three times...

Answer 1

Well, the model on sites like Linguistics.SE is that single-language questions are off-topic, unless they address a specific linguistics question or can be extended to be cross-linguistic. By that model 'how do you say trombone in Klingon' would then be off-topic here.

Arguing against the above, though, given the specialized interest in Conlangs it could be that if those questions aren't answered here, they're not likely to be answered on (e.g.) Navi Language and Usage SE.

All I know is that if we open it up to these questions I expect a lot of 'how do you say blizzard in Nav'i' type questions.

Answer 2

Well, the model on sites like Linguistics.SE is that single-language questions are off-topic, unless they address a specific linguistics question or can be extended to be cross-linguistic.

But a relevant parallel are the "language and use" (which this potential site would likely overlap with with regard to constructed languages), and these are full of such questions (e.g.).

Framing the site specifically onto "artificial language creation" (as opposed to the current poorly focused "about auxiliary, constructed, planned, and artificial languages") would easily fix that. any question about "How to say X in Esperanto/Klingon/Navi/Volapuk/Established conlang X" probably belongs on an "Artificial Languages grammar and usage" site (on the model of the current generic Linguistics vs. language-specific betas).

Answer 3

At first blush, I think that ruling out questions about how one says X in natural or constructed language Y seems off base to me, because it might limit the participation of conlangers who are modeling their languages on others'. For example, consider a proposal to reform Esperanto or simplify Chinese.

However, we could still rule out questions of this type on the grounds that the people asking such questions are responsible for researching the answers, since information about existing languages and conlangs is easy to come by.

Answer 4

I spend most of my on StackOverflow. There questions asking for code to do something are considered off topic because they want you to try and then get help if it fails. So I think if the question were reworded to be something like:

Is [word or phrase] how you say [word or phrase] in [some conlang]?

Then I think it would be fine because the person is making an attempt to solve the problem for themselves and asking for corrections.