Requests for new languages/Wiktionary Melanau

Melanau Wiktionary

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Requests for new languages (Wiktionary Melanau)

submitted verification final decision Discuss the creation of this language project on this page. Votes will be ignored when judging the proposal. Please provide arguments or reasons and be prepared to defend them (see the Language proposal policy).

Proposal summary
Language details: Melanau (Central Melanau, bfg ISO 639-3) Editing community: Tokbat (N) List your user name if you're interested in editing the wiki. Add "N" next to your name if you are a native speaker of this language. Relevant pages: Development wiki project External links: Melanau, Central
Please read the handbook for requesters for help using this template correctly.

About Melanau

• Population: 113,000 in Sarawak (2000 census)
• Total Speakers: c.a.30 000 Source: Wikipedia Melanau
• Location spoken: Sarawak 11th Division, Rejang delta coastal area to Balingian River. Also in Brunei.

The Melanau are considered among the earliest settlers in Sarawak. The name Melanau was not used by the Melanau to refer to themselves until recently. They call themselves a-likou meaning ‘people of the river’. Legend has it that the name Melanau was given by one of the Sultans of Brunei to the inhabitants of the coastal swamp flats and riverbanks of central Sarawak.

The Melanau live in a low-lying swampy plain covered by dense tropical forest in the coastal region of Sarawak. They are mostly located in and near the towns of Mukah, Matu, Daro, Dalat, Bintulu, Kanowit, and Sibu.

Because of their group affiliation, Melanau derive their identities through people such as parents, friends, relatives, and teachers. The self is a part of the community, the family, the clan, the village, and the bureaucracy. A person’s family is the primary unit that defines Melanau roles, responsibilities, and status in the community.

The Melanau language consists of various dialects. However, most of Melanau people use the dialect from the Mukah area to communicate with those from other dialects.

Arguments in favour

• The Melanau Wictionary is to gather as much as possible melanau word from various dialects of the central melanau.There are only circa 30 000 melanau who can speak the language and sadly the numbers are decreasing each year. One of the main reason is some melanaus have taken their language for granted and there are melanau parents who refuse or hesitate to teach their children the language anymore.
• Fortunately there are many growing interest among the younger generation of melanaus trying to trace back their roots and learn the language. However there are limited resource about the language in the internet. Hence I believe that Wictionary is the best medium to gather as much as possible melanau vocabularies for future refference and studies.

Tokbat 13:35, 14 January 2011 (UTC)

If you want to support Melanau Wiktionary type: {{yes}}'''Support''' -~~~~ in "Arguments in favour section."

Arguments against

• 'Support'Support