Why does the Tagalog sections of Wiki get very little input from Tagalog speakers (writers)?

Question

Is it better to answer questions like, "Should I shave my scrotum?" or “Where should I stay in Tarlak?”, for 2 points, or make a real and lasting contribution to one of the best know sources of information? Heck if I know. I do know there are no well known Tagalog dictionaries and that speakers of English are all to willing to hand you the Webster’s.

http://tl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unang_Pahina
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Index:Tagalog
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page

Answer 1

In fact, there aren't a lot of words in Tagalog that would support the way we'd write in Tagalog. For the same reason, we don't study school subjects in Tagalog like Science in Mathematics because of the lack of lexicons.

However, I appreciate Tagalog so much when it is written in the most formal way...

Thanks for the links. I am thinking of giving contributions there someday...

Answer 2

No good answer except I didn't know how Wiki worked. I took the time to read through a good portion of the instructions. It appears the Wiki-dictionary or Wiktionary is a group effort. I think I'll add to the 157 tagalog words already defined. My 7 year-old brother could add to a list that long. But, no points you say?
Good question Ash.

Answer 3

People find it too taxing to produce truly useful information. For an information to be truly useful, not only should it be researched and presented, it should be verified, questioned, defended, corrected if necessary, rechecked and only then accepted. People tend to short-cut this process leaving an avenue of more misinformation than useful information.

Take the word "abestrus" for example, presented on your first link as the Tagalog word for "ostrich". Looking deeper it seems to originate from Calderon's Ingles-Español-Tagalog citing abestrus as the Tagalog translated probably an off-shoot from the Spanish word for it "avestruz".

But has that been verified? Why doesn't it appear even in the two other links you gave? Can other sources be cited? As for me, an "ostrich" remains to be an "ostrich" for the lack of any Tagalog word for it unless someone convincingly proves otherwise. I would rather subscribe to a lack of information rather than dive to misinformation.

Answer 4

i think it all boils down to the fact that we have few tagalog writers.and very few have studied or continues to the study the tagalog.

then again we're gonna ask ourselves:

why do we have few tagalog writers?

btw, i forgot to add this. members of people's organizations,aktibista kung tawagin are really good in writing and speaking tagalog. if you happen to check on their leaflets,papers,websites and their interviews on tv and radios, they rarely use english unless needed. everything is explained in the local language which should be well appreciated. and they also encourage other filipinos to do the same. they start with themsleves and we should do the same di nga ba? =)

Answer 5

Hey, thank you for pointing that out!

Now I learned that the Filipino term for "ostrich" is "abestrus". Impressive! Yes Pinalakang Tabing, the spanish word for ostrich is "avestruz" but with the alfabetong filipino, it was adopted into the language.

You made a great point. Perhaps because it takes a lot of effort to communicate well in pure Filipino.

Answer 6

Umm, i could not comprehend the 1st answer nicely (That became into some heavily deep Filipino o__o) and the 2d became into text textile talk... Para sa mga kapamilya ko dyan sa Pilipinas: Pano kayong lahat nagkaroon ng mga iPhone? would iPhone o iPod touch ba kayo tsaka naghihiraman ba kayo? Pag nakikita ko kasi yung mga status nyo, galing lahat sa fb App ng iPhone. Di naman sa nambabastos, nacu-curious lang naman ako. Love you adult males, regards sa lahat dyan!! ...err, sorry if I made a mistake XD the impolite section became into complicated =__= (i'd desire to strengthen my vocabulary)

Answer 7

very few people speak true tagalog in its purest form. a lot of people in central luzon use taglish and are sometimes intimidated by the use of tagalog and leave it to intellectuals to use.