WARNING: Some parts of the ff. msg might be outdated because of the creation of the Cebuano Wikipedia http://ceb.wikipedia.org/ on June 22. Thank you.

Guys,

I was not active yet with the Wikipedia when you started voting whether to separate/merge the Tagalog and Filipino Wikipedias.

As a Filipino though (a national of the Philippines, not to be confused with 'one who speaks the Filipino language'), I could tell you that the Filipino language is ONE BIG, FAT LIE. There is, there has never been, and (hopefully) there will never be a Filipino language. What our national government is calling "the Filipino 'language'" is actually the same language the Tagalogs of Luzon are speaking. There was never and there is no difference between "Tagalog" and "Filipino".

The term Filipino is used by the Tagalogs, who is the second most numerous ethnic group in the Philippines (Cebuanos are first by about a million) and who is in control of our government to make it easier for other ethnic groups (not only us the Cebuanos, but also the Warays, Pampangos, Pangasinense, etc.) to accept their imposition of their language in us. In other words, "Filipino" was invented to deceive us and to force their language down our throats.

And in fact, the current Tagalog Wikipedia is NOT following the latest orthographic rules laid down by the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (Commission on the Filipino Language, the governmental agency tasked with regulating the Tagalog language). Last Dec. 2003 (if I remember correctly), the KWF released a new version of their ever-changing orthographic conventions, which (of course) was never followed by textbook publishers, media companies, and other entities involved with publication -- even those Tagalog-owned. (In short: their imposition of the language is one big mess. They can't even force their rules on their own 'kababayans'.)

You can see that granting the Cebuano speakers a Wikipedia in their own language is not only a matter of extending the Wikipedia project to those who are willing to extend it in their own languages but a moral, ethical act on your part which could not only save a language which is suffering from unjust treatment from a misguided government but also give its young speakers some semblance of hope and something to be proud of of their own language.

So what do I suggest? 1. You give us our request -- which is to have a Wikipedia in Cebuano. 2. You NEVER, NEVER allow a request for a Filipino Wikipedia -- and instead tell the requesters to work in the Tagalog Wikipedia. 3. You give the requests of the speakers of other "minority" languages in the Philippines. (So far, only Edwin -- for the Kapampangan language -- has requested. We are hoping that the creation of Cebuano and Kapampangan Wikipedias would inspire others.)

Matinahoron (Respectfully yours),

Vincent "Bentong" S. Isles http://bentong.topcities.com/

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