Request to Add New Language
Good day,
I would like to request for adding Esan (ish) on translatewiki to enable speakers to translate in Esan. Thank for your time and consideration.
Kind regards
It is now enabled. Welcome :)
For completeness I also added the Portal:Ish page, and its related categories (some of them were already referenced before it was enabled).
@Amir: However I don't know from where you took the name "awain" (seen in generated Babelbox), as the references use the orthography "anwain" as an alternate name; but the usual name is "Esan" (in English) or "Ishan" in the native language (see https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/esan1238). I did not find any place where "awain" (with a 'n' missing before 'w') was used, not even in Wikipedia, Wikidata, The Linguist List, CLDR... Maybe you just mistyped it (and it was not used in the request made by "Hackesan" whose user name, visibly created ad hoc for that language, is of course based on the English name "Esan" requested.
Note that this is a language spoken in Nigeria, where English is official and Esan remains a minority language, without any officially recognized status at least locally or regionally, so it should be based on local community efforts (or on some possibly old approximative dictionnaries made by missionaries and not reflecting completely the actual modern usage, probably mixed/creolized now with lot of English, or developed now as an "argot" with possibly various local jargons keeping various subset or forms of the language, depending on social groups, families, ages or other usages). As well the orthography may be unstable today if the phonology has been influenced by English or other local languages, and if historical ethnical groups have spread and mixed (and with the current boom of demography in Nigeria, and huge development of communications and transports, the linguistic patterns and historical geographical separation could fade away many linguistic distinctions, creating some local "Nigerianglish" creoles mixing English various native languages (and not just Edoid languages).
Note that "Anwain" (correct name) is just refering to one of a dozen ethnical "clans" that historically speak Esan/Ishan; it also refers to a geographic area in the Edo state where they developed and lived (but now they have spread in a much larger area); but it should not be the name of the language itself (because there are other clans), but may only be one of its "dialects" (if there are specific uses or local forms in that clan with limited usage in their historic area).
Some interesting reading (and the history of that "Esan/Ishan" area in the former Kingdom of Benin at end of the 19th century): https://www.edouniversity.edu.ng/oerrepository/articles/the_nupe_invasion_of_esanland_an_assessment_of_its_socio-political_impact_on_the_people_1885-1897.pdf
It's from Ethnologue, and was confirmed by Hackesan in private communication.
The Ethnologue is frequently wrong, based on old searches; The Linguist List does not confirm that, neither do ISO 639; and there's no other reference found for that orthography in any published document I could find. All of them use an "n" as the second letter; and anyway, remember that this is not really the languge name, but an ethnonym, one of a dozen (earlier up to about 40 in the 17th century). It may happen that some expatriated Esan people (notably those livinf now in modern Benin, but not most of them living in Nigeria, have used an abbreviated form of their erlier ethnonym), but most active speakers of that language now in Nigeria (in the Edo State from where it originates) use an "n"; may be not those that were converted to Islam, if they are more used to the Arabic script, as this "n" also indicates a nasalisation of the previous vowel, which is not frequently written in the Arabic script; if retranscribed to Latin, it may be lost.
As the language was first written described to use the Latin script, the original name with an "n" should be used. And anyway this is just a partial name for one of the particular ethnical groups (called "clans" in Nigeria) and the Anwian people (in Edo, Nigeria where it is also a recognized subentity of the LGA; or expatriated elsewhere) are not the only people/clan speaking that language whose prefered name remains "Esan" (or "Ishan") and is suitable for all groups.
That's like if instead of speaking about "English" we just used "British" (a nationality, even if it covers more than British people of England), but now English covers people from around the world and is no longer attached to an ethnical group or nationality.
Frenquently we have confusions about language names and ethnonyms (which are more restricted, and sometimes "elitist"). I seked at relevant churches and mosquees in Nigeria, and since long now they refer to the language name as "Esan" (or "Ishan", with minor variation, but rarely as "Anwain", and never as "Awain"...). The link I provided above is from the Edo University in Nigeria (where there are probably other history and language books about the Esan people, and their former cultural land that is sometimes refered as "Esanland" even if it does not match today's administrative or territorial units in Nigeria, and today's recognized "clans", where many have merged in the 20th century and since the independance of Nigeria from the former British Empire).
Even the Ethologue references the OLAG list (http://www.language-archives.org/language/ish) which uses Esan as the primary name, but states:
- Other known names and dialect names: Anwain, Ebhoato, Ebhoikimi, Egholo, Egoro, Eilu, Ekpoma, Ekpon, Ekunma, Esa, Ewatto, Ewohimi, Ewu, Igueben, Irrua, Isa, Ishan, Ogwa, Opoji, Owoha, Ubiaja, Ubiaza, Ugboha, Ukpozi, Uromi, Uronmun, Uruwa
(in summary "Anwain" is one of the dialects whose name matches a particular ethnical clan. Note also that there's an "n" here! so there's a single "reference" to the name without the 'n', but not in any independant publication. The Ethnologue is largely based on works in the Anglican church, but local churches in Nigeria do not even use the name without the "n" which is most likely coming from a "relatinisation" from the Arabic script; Looking into church sources in Benin givens orthographies with an "n"; sources from mosquees do not use the Latin script at all; so this is very likely an error in The Ethnologue online database, which is proprietary and not peer-reviewed and historic for the genesis of what is now ISO 639-3, now maintained by SIL but under agreement and decisions made internationaly by the ISO committee, and peer-reviewed by linguists around the world).