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Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Bikol

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Bikol Wikipedia edit

submitted verification final decision
  This proposal has been approved.
The Board of Trustees and language committee have deemed that there is sufficient grounds and community to create the new language project.

The closing committee member provided the following comment:

See an unofficial analysis of this request and its test project by a member of the language subcommittee. —{admin} Pathoschild 14:39:21, 06 October 2007 (UTC)

This wiki will be created at bcl.wikipedia.org. —{admin} Pathoschild 13:59:46, 01 November 2007 (UTC)
Proposal summary

Diksionariong Bikol by Mintz

OragonRepublic.com Bikol Dictionary
Please read the handbook for requesters for help using this template correctly.

Bikol (specifically Bikol Naga, Bikol Central or Standard Bikol) is the predominant language of the Bicol Region (Region V) in the Philippines. With 2.5 million speakers, it is the sixth-largest language in the Philippines. I think a Wikipedia for Bikol (which would make this, including Incubator projects, the tenth Philippine-language Wikipedia) would be very much feasible.

Arguments in favour edit

  • Support It is about time that Bikol has its own Wikipedia, given the huge presence of Bicolanos on the web (I maintain a YahooGroup for Bicolanos that's been around for 10 years). I concur with Harvszf above that the scope of the Wikipedia needs to be specified. Ethnologue has bcl for "Central Bikol." Many Bicolanos who don't have the Central standard as their native language, do use it as their second language. --Chris S. 06:49, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Whoops, I moved the Incubator project to bik per ISO 639-3 (and I believe ISO 639-2) I fixed the code on Incubator again. Looks like the codes are wrong in the corresponding Wikipedia article. --Sky Harbor 09:45, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support As a major language of the Philippines, Standard Bikol should have its own Wikipedia. Because several languages are known as Bikol, however, the proposal should specifically state the type of Bikol for the Wikipedia. Katimawan2005 14:54, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support One of the major spoken and written languages in the Philippines. The language has an ISO code. Although this language is mutually unintelligible to me, i strongly support the creation of Bikol Wikipedia due to the substantial number of its users. --Rebskii 17:53, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support According to this list, the Bikol language is ranked sixth. The top seven Philippino languages (apart from Hiligaynon and Bikol) already have their own Wikipedia languages editions. Hence the Bikol Wikipedia should also be given the priviledge and opportunity to have its own Wikipedia edition. A few more native speakers can bring the test project to life. --Jose77 23:05, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support I believe that Bicol should be given the privilege of having their own wikipedia and to be able to express their language identity in the wikipedia community. I support that the community should specify the type of Bicol to use in this wikipedia. Val2397 23:29, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support The City Government of Naga has recently prioritized the standardization of the Bicol-Naga language. Toward this end, it will initiate the establishment of a local institution that will lead the effort. (See Mayor Robredo's Executive-Legislative Agenda for which is available here.) This is just one indication of a renewed, much bigger movement involving many other stakeholders to push the language's development, considering its influence over a substantial segment of the Philippine population as described above. A wikipedia on the language will be a powerful contribution to these efforts, considering that it will bring together Bikolano-speaking contributors that may be dispersed all over the globe but are joined together by the internet through this web-based project. --Jackryan68 02:35, 1 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support Popularity or widespread use issues aside, the Bikolano culture is rich in history and significance. Creating a Bikol Wikipedia will facilitate the recording and categorization of this knowledge, within reasonable limits and policy purview of course. You can also count on an active user community to help keep this language up to standards on Wikipedia. --58.69.161.33 05:16, 5 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support Bikol is either the fifth or sixth most widely spoken Philippine language and as such easily satisfies the criteria for the number of speakers. Furthermore, the figure of 2.5 million dates back from the 1990 census and includes only the variety known as Standard Bikol, sometimes also called Naga Bikol. Given the rapid growth rate of the Philippine population, this figure is likely to be in the region of 3.5 - 4 million as of 2007. Since Standard Bikol is also used as a lingua franca throughout the Bicol Region we have a potential internet readership of nearly the entire region's 6 million inhabitants, far more than many other sub-national languages that generate much more publicity. Bikol also satisfies the requirement for linguistic uniqueness. Although it is closely related to Tagalog and Cebuano, it is not mutually intelligible with either of them . As far as deciding which variety of Bikol is to be chosen I recommend we start with Standard Bikol first as this is the region's de facto lingua franca and has the greatest number of speakers. I would like to point out that the term "Naga Bikol" can be confusing since this variety is spoken not only in Naga City but in most of Camarines Norte, most of Camarines Sur, the entire east coast of Albay including its largest cities Legazpi and Tabaco and northern Sorsogon. The term "Naga Bikol" is therefore far more inclusive than it may at first seem. For this reason some linguists call it Standard Bikol. I am willing to give my support by becoming part of an active Bikol language community and contributing informative articles. ~~Steven*F--Steven*fung 23:38, 6 August 2007 (UTC)Steven*F[reply]
  • Support The test-project is good developing. Looks good. -Markvondeegel 08:18, 15 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support Because I do not know anything about the Bicol language other than it's one of the major languages of the Philippines, my support is basically a general support for Bicolanos in particular and Filipinos in general. --Weekeejames 10:03, 17 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support. The test-project is very active, many articles. I support the creation of this Wikipedia. --Ooswesthoesbes 13:49, 23 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Arguments against edit

General discussion edit

How much existing literature and reference material is there written in Bikol? Do we have an ETA on that standardisation project?Geni 18:44, 1 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There are other resources on Bikol language & literature available at linguist Jason Lobel's website. As to the standardisation project, from what I can gather from the linked document, Naga City plans to establish a local institute for Naga-Bikol--Harvzsf 07:00, 2 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Existing literature goes back for decades. There used to be magazines that were published in the 1940s-1950s and are collected on CD that Jason Lobel, mentioned above, compiled. If you wish to see some samples, please contact me on the English Wikipedia. In any case, these days Bikol is used in local newspapers and there news in Bikol, via TV Patrol. --Chris S. 05:46, 3 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

PS ~ I found some videos of Bikol news broadcasts on YouTube. They appear to be based in Sorsogon, but are using the standard dialect of the region if I'm not mistaken. [1] --Chris S. 06:38, 3 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, it is Standard Bikol. --Filipinayzd 11:11, 6 October 2007 (UTC)
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