Request to Add New Language
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).