Talk:Tsekwa

Tagalog Etymology

@Mlgc1998 I see how in the Cebuano dictionary, we can find "Insik wákang káun kalibang", but where did you find the link between that phrase as "Tsekwa"? How did you conclude that the Tagalog word is a Cebuano borrowing? Or that it comes from this Cebuano phrase? For example, the guess of Zorc in his Tagalog Slang Dictionary is that "tsekwa" comes from a blend of "intsik" and "tokwa". Mar vin kaiser (talk) 10:54, 2 July 2022 (UTC)

@Mar vin kaiser This word got a bit of a wild ride throughout the years. I vaguely remember some years ago before ever editing here on wiktionary probably around somewhere early 2010s reading a forum post reply from some pages of pinoyexchange.com dated around early 2000s or so, maybe like 2003 or 2006 or somewhere there, where people were arguing which word was the derogatory one they shouldn't be using (or what the chinese haters on the streets back then was looking to use to insult filchi together with a middle finger while driving on the road), if it was (intsik / inchek / inchik / intsek) or (tsekwa / chekwa) (can't remember exactly which spellings they used on that forum before but I know it varied). Someone later replied explaining how Tsekwa came from Intsik anyways and that it was all the same, just that the former came from some phrase of like intsik/inchek wakang/gwakang/kwakang kaon kalibang (can't remember which spellings which person there used for each word) or something of the sort. Later on, I saw some people posting or commenting online also saying similar and that that phrase or so must be Bisaya or something and that it was some sort of limerick that kids liked to keep saying. I can't remember if I was that IP who first tried to make sense of it and put the etymology on this page before the time I made this wiktionary account. A couple of years later in 2020 tho, I'm surprised to hear of and read that Prof. Ambeth Ocampo later wrote an article about this lol, which someone on facebook shared to us the web article before, which I now realized what User:TagaSanPedroAko was saying back in 2018 something about reclaiming back then, I wasn't sure what he meant about that before, but anyways, that article Prof. Ambeth Ocampo wrote said that he had found it 'on the net', which I surmise he must've read it here on wiktionary since he was using the exact same wording and spellings I must've put before back in 2018 with that IP, before I made an account here. I can't remember if it was around 2020 or 2021 or so, when multiple people I know of from Davao and Cebu also confirmed that something like "Inchek wakang" or just "wakang" was still a sort of occasional expression that some Bisaya speakers would still say there to insult filchi or any chinese there and later, one friend from Davao shared me a link to Wolff's Cebuano dictionary showing the expression recorded there. Then later, another friend from Davao mentioned that there was also like "Inchek gwakang baboy tikangkang" or the fuller or combined form "Inchik wakang, baboy tikangkang, kaon, kalibang". Months later, someone from Cebu also told me that "tsekwa" / "chekwa" seemed more like a relatively new word adopted from Tagalog but the older expression they were saying was that "inchek wakang". I made the page for Insik wakang, kaon, kalibang before after confirming in both Wolff's cebuano dictionary and some friends from Cebu and Davao that Insik was the more default sort of word for them since according to my friend from Cebu, it was easier for Bisaya speakers to pronounce it that way, but they still write like "inchek"/"intsik" more commonly or so. Then later, I found that User:Carl Francis already made a page last 2017 of Insek kwakang baboy tikangkang. The "Insik wakang", "wákang insik, tsíbay", "wakang" I think are also recorded in Wolff's cebuano dictionary. Mlgc1998 (talk) 13:16, 2 July 2022 (UTC)

Also, sometimes Zorc's Slang dictionary seems to usually get some slang terms from Hokkien or Cebuano wrong, likely cuz during the 90s, he probably didn't have a Filchi contact or Bisaya contact to clarify to him some words, but some words from there that he did get right, his local Tagalog-speaking contacts must've knew about, but the ones they didn't know about, Zorc and his contacts likely had to figure out on their own. Mlgc1998 (talk) 13:24, 2 July 2022 (UTC)

@Mlgc1998: So basically, the only source you have for connecting the word "Tsekwa" with the Cebuano phrase is the forum replies you got a decade ago, right? --Mar vin kaiser (talk) 13:48, 2 July 2022 (UTC)

@Mlgc1998: Yup, I agree Zorc isn't 100% right, but a dependable source. Just want to make sure all known sources are accounted for. --Mar vin kaiser (talk) 14:13, 2 July 2022 (UTC)

@Mar vin kaiser Well, that's what we have. If there's any doubt, it's a slang word made and popularized by people from the streets, especially as an insult, so what else could be expected. If there's any distrust from supposed forum replies some decades ago. A lot of word etymology info survive only from people passing it on in some format. Oral or Written, it's gonna be based on how someone along the line conceived or connected things, whether Zorc or whichever long time author on the subject. The only difference with book sources in terms of authoritativeness is that the publishers and editors decided to observe and trust how they got the info from enough, which is why book sources still get things mistaken. In this case, I've just reflected and analyzed the popular conception as it survives, of which people point it to that older expression in Cebuano, since there doesn't seem to be any recorded mention online yet of "Chekwa"/"Tsekwa"/"Chikwa"/"Tsikwa" for more than but a few decades back only in late 20th century, at least online in Google search. Mlgc1998 (talk) 14:21, 2 July 2022 (UTC)

@Mlgc1998: Thanks, I think the Cebuano origin is worth preserving but as a conjecture, though I'll simplify the etymology that you typed, since a lot of that info is better found in the entry of the Cebuano idiom itself. --Mar vin kaiser (talk) 14:48, 2 July 2022 (UTC)

@Mar vin kaiser yeah cuz years ago, I wrote all the info just on this page, before I decided to make the Cebuano idiom entry or transfer the info in other such pages. Mlgc1998 (talk) 14:51, 2 July 2022 (UTC)