Requests for new languages/Wikipedia Maranao 2

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). The language committee needs to verify the language is eligible to be approved. Check that the project does not already exist (see list). Obtain an ISO 639 code Ensure the requested language is sufficiently unique that it could not exist on a more general wiki. Ensure that there are a sufficient number of native editors of that language to merit an edition in that language.

The community needs to develop an active test project; it must remain active until approval (automated statistics, recent changes). It is generally considered active if the analysis lists at least three active, not-grayed-out editors listed in the sections for the previous few months.
The community needs to complete required MediaWiki interface translations in that language (about localization, translatewiki, check completion).
The community needs to discuss and complete the settings table below:

What	Value	Example / Explanation

Proposal
Language code	mrw (SIL, Glottolog)	A valid ISO 639-1 or 639-3 language code, like "fr", "de", "nso", ...
Language name	Maranao	Language name in English
Language name	Mëranaw	Language name in your language. This will appear in the language list on Special:Preferences, in the interwiki sidebar on other wikis, ...
Language Wikidata item	Q33800 - item has currently the following values: English label: Maranao native label (P1705): Mëranaw instance of (P31)/subclass of (P279): language, modern language / Danao Wikimedia language code (P424): writing system (P282): Latin script number of speakers, writers, or signers (P1098): 780,000	Item about the language at Wikidata. It would normally include the Wikimedia language code, name of the language, etc. Please complete at Wikidata if needed.
Directionality	LTR	Is the language written from left to right (LTR) or from right to left (RTL)?
Links		Links to previous requests, or references to external websites or documents.
Site URL	mrw.wikipedia.org	langcode.wikiproject.org

Settings
Project name	Wikipedia	"Wikipedia" in your language
Project namespace	{{{ns_project}}}	usually the same as the project name
Project talk namespace		"Wikipedia talk" (the discussion namespace of the project namespace)
Enable uploads	no	Default is "no". Preferably, files should be uploaded to Commons. If you want, you can enable local file uploading, either by any user ("yes") or by administrators only ("admin"). Notes: (1) This setting can be changed afterwards. The setting can only be "yes" or "admin" at approval if the test creates an Exemption Doctrine Policy (EDP) first. (2) Files on Commons can be used on all Wikis. (3) Uploading fair-use images is not allowed on Commons (more info). (4) Localisation to your language may be insufficient on Commons.
Optional settings
Project logo		This needs to be an SVG image (instructions for logo creation).
Default project timezone	Asia/Manila	"Continent/City", e.g. "Europe/Brussels" or "America/Mexico City" (see list of valid timezones)
Additional namespaces		For example, a Wikisource would need "Page", "Page talk", "Index", "Index talk", "Author", "Author talk".
Additional settings		Anything else that should be set
Once settings are finalized, a committee member will submit a Phabricator task requesting creation of the wiki. (This will include everything automatically, except the additional namespaces/settings.) After the task is created, it should be linked to in a comment under "final decision" above.

Proposal

The Maranao language (Tagalog: Wikang Mëranaw) is an Austronesian language spoken by the Maranao people in the provinces of Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte and their respective cities of Marawi and Iligan located in the Philippines, as well found also in Sabah, Malaysia. It is spoken among the Moros within and surrounding the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. In 2020, approximately 2.5 million people speaks the language.

The name "Maranao" (also spelled "Mëranaw", or "Maranaw") means "people of the lake" (lanaw or ranaw, archaic danaw, means "lake" in the Maranao language). This is in reference to Lake Lanao, the predominant geographic feature of the ancestral homeland of the Maranao people. The Maranao people are the custodians of the Darangen, an ancient epic song recognized by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

It is one of the major languages of the Philippines. Unlike many endangered languages, Maranao has a vibrant, living speaker base. However, despite this large population, there is a severe lack of digital encyclopedic content available in their mother tongue. A dedicated Wikipedia will bridge the digital divide for over a million people who currently rely on second languages (English or Tagalog) to access information.

The urgency of this project is highlighted by the 2017 Marawi Siege, which resulted in the destruction of significant physical infrastructure, including libraries, museums, and cultural artifacts in the Islamic City of Marawi (the cultural heart of the Maranao people). As the physical city rebuilds, a Maranao Wikipedia serves as a crucial form of digital cultural preservation. It allows the community to document their history, lineage (Salsila), and cultural practices in a resilient, decentralized format that cannot be destroyed by physical conflict.

Creating the Maranao Wikipedia directly supports the movement's goal of Knowledge Equity. It empowers a minority Muslim community in the Philippines, historically underrepresented in the digital space, to create content about their own world, in their own voice, rather than having their history written solely by outsiders. --Exec8 (talk) 17:10, 23 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Useful Resources:

Discussion

Arguments in favour

Strong support. Creating a Maranao Wikipedia is essential to digitally preserve the unique, UNESCO-recognized heritage of the Maranao people and provide equitable access to free knowledge for over 1.4 million native speakers who currently lack an encyclopedia in their mother tongue. --Exec8 (talk)
Strong support This is essential as because there are many speakers of the language and wiki communities are starting to show interest in contributing Maranao content in Wikipedia.--Lady01v (talk) 04:17, 24 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Strong support Mindanao has a vast wealth of languages and it is high time the Maranao language takes the centerstage in a Wikiproject. We wish more of these for Mindanao. --QueenCityCebu (talk) 22:58, 30 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Strong support Establishing a Maranao Wikipedia will help preserve the community’s rich cultural heritage and expand equitable access to free knowledge for more than a million native speakers who currently rely on other languages online. It also supports mother-tongue education and aligns with Wikimedia’s knowledge equity mission by enabling Maranao speakers to document their own history and knowledge in their own language.--LuzViMindaLife (talk) 18:05, 22 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Arguments against

Other discussion

@Exec8: As of today, the Wp/mrw test project does only have a main page created by you 2 years ago, with two English words "Main page", did there have any plans on expanding contents within it? Anyway, as the above request table said, you entered "yes" for the Enable uploads setting, can you please explain why on setting so? And did you try to discuss this thing with other contributors, or even tried to establish such an EDP policy within the test project? --Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 03:44, 24 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]