Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
A growing arsenal of languages certainly can't be neatly boxed in a Babel template
[edit] Real life
I am Vanessa Roxas Tan. I am a hobbyist photographer and I find my photos of my home country Philippines to be my main contribution online, but I like to do a lot of things, including Wiktionary-editing! University undergraduate tasks are fun at the moment, enjoying my Spanish and French classes a lot. I like history, and I find that linguistics isn't far from it; like photographs, one may almost breathe the life of days gone by through words.
I find there is not enough academic pursuit on Philippine culture, and I want to help fill that gap somehow. Photographs will immortalize, written accounts will attest, art and music will bear secrets, and actions will make history.
[edit] Things to do
Basically to spruce up the state of Philippine language words on Wikt:
- Post a mass addition of Tagalog words; this script helps
- Write Wiktionary:About Tagalog and Wiktionary:About Filipino that may serve as a map for the direction of Tagalog and Filipino on en.wikt
- Explain Alphabet, Pronunciation, Grammar
- Reconstruct conjugation charts Tagalog nouns, verbs, and adjectives and explain each
- Trace a line between Tagalog and Filipino, if existing
- Find the best possible way to have the stress marking system that Philippine-language words use
- Point out that this marking system is outdated, but is useful nonetheless and may be found in modern Phil. dictionaries
- Tagalog table of languages for Polyglot's project
[edit] Concerns
A clear direction. There is much to do. I am not an expert on Philippine languages, and I feel I had thrust myself in the middle of construction and I have to make sure the foundations are being laid to support how the building had been originally conceived. It is daunting and I rely on printed sources as a map, but what is a map without a learned eye to read them efficiently? I need help, another hand or a leader to watch over and see to it the state of Phil. languages is sailing in a right direction.
Credibility of new words. Filipino and Tagalog are ever-growing, and new words always sprout up in the melting pot of stratifying people. Apparently I don't have to be a language professor to contribute on Wikt, but there is always the question of when a word may deserve to have an entry, especially a non-printed one or a slang. Is the criterion the length of time for the usage, the number of people using, the mention of a scholarly body or representative, or a precise yet unpredictable mix of the three? Does a common man's experience even fit that, and will he as a living specimen of everyday Filipino life be deemed less credible if he may lack the sources to prove the word is being used in a technology-untouched countryside?
[edit] Main references for entries
- Books by Jose Villa Panganiban of Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (Commission on the Filipino Language)
- Books about Tagalog authored by Paul Schachter
- Hiligaynon-Tagalog Dictionary by Ruby Alcantara << Apparently the author is a professor in my uni. Cool.
