Talk:Shebelle River

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Length

I'm confused. In 'Lists of Rivers Longer than 1000 km' you put the Shabele River as 2,490 km long. But in the description of the Shabele River, it is stated that the Shabele is 1130 km long. Which one is correct? --04:52, 13 September 2005 207.69.139.149

And in addition to this fact it can't be possible, that the river is extending for 1000 kilometers inside Ethiopia and 130 inside Somalia, because the distance between the ethiopian-somalian border to the Indik ocean as measured by air-line is only 280 km long.

In the internet you can find the information that the river is 1.820 km long (Ethiopia 920 km; Somalia 900 km). The "Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68", that the Shabele River is 1130 kilometers long, is a stub and schould be deletet. --84.138.76.160 16:35, 16 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Spelling

Shebelle:

Shabelle:

And more. So it's probably Shabelle. Alexis Jazz (talk) 13:58, 6 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 6 April 2018

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: no consensus to move the page to any particular title at this time, per the discussion below; hopefully, continued discussion at a centralized location can result in a consensus decision about a consistent way to treat the titles of these articles. Dekimasuよ! 21:42, 22 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Shebelle River → Shabelle River – Talk:Shebelle River#Spelling Alexis Jazz (talk) 14:02, 6 April 2018 (UTC)--Relisting. Dekimasuよ! 06:55, 15 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Google ngram of print sources. — AjaxSmack 01:31, 8 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
The Board of Geographic Names (http://geonames.nga.mil/namesgaz/) gives it as Shabeelle in Somalia and Shebele in Ethiopia and listing Shebelle as a variant. A plain google search still has Shebelle coming up as most common, but Shabelle not far behind and Shabeelle and Shebele further behind but still getting over 20,000 hits each. Kmusser (talk) 13:17, 8 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Kmusser: For the regions Lower Shabelle and Middle Shabelle the main source for the "Shebelle" spelling seems to be.. Wikipedia. Because articles were named "Shebelle" here since 2003 and many sources copy from Wikipedia the search results for that spelling since 2003 have probably been inflated bij Wikipedia itself.

Google Ngram "Lower Shebelle,Lower Shabelle,Lower Shabeelle" (more results for Shabelle, Ngrams not found: Lower Shabeelle)

Google Ngram "Middle Shebelle,Middle Shabelle,Middle Shabeelle" (Ngrams not found: Middle Shebelle, Middle Shabeelle)

The nga.mil has variants like "Province of Lower Shabelle" and "Province of Central Shabelle" listed. The "Anglicized Variants" they list don't seem to be in use. Alexis Jazz (talk) 14:42, 8 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

If you want to use ngrams I'd add this and this for comparison (I have no preference here, just trying to add more data). Kmusser (talk) 15:39, 8 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Kmusser: thanks. Data after 2003 should possibly be ignored as Wikipedia may have influenced that.

nga.mil entry:

Webi Shabeelle (Approved - N)

Somalia (SO) Webi (Generic)

Wabi Shebele (Approved - N)

Ethiopia (ET) Wabi (Generic) Uebi Scebeli (Variant - V)

Wabe Shebele (Variant - V)
Uabi Shebelle (Variant - V)
Webi Tukuule (Variant - V)
Location: 00° 10' 33" N, 042° 45' 56" E (.175833, 42.765556)
MGRS: 38NKF5130019450
Feature Designation (Code): intermittent stream (STMI)

It just seems odd the regions use the Shabelle spelling, are named after the river yet the river uses the Shebelle spelling. Alexis Jazz (talk) 16:46, 8 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The regions were originally at their Somali-language names until undiscussed moves in 2011 (here and here — borderline OR?: Shabeellaha Dhexe could be "Central" or "Middle Sha/ebel(l)e".) Wikipedia, therefore would not have influenced spellings until then. Lower Shabelle was titled "Lower Shebelle" until another undiscussed move a a few days ago. — AjaxSmack 18:18, 8 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@AjaxSmack: in hindsight (everything is easier in hindsight) I could have requested those moves with a discussion. When I requested those though, I wasn't aware there were more than two (Shabelle/Shebelle) common ways to spell the names of those regions in English. And out of those two, reliable sources seem to usually go with "Shabelle" for the regions.

Maybe when there is no clear "winner" for an English name we should just use the Somali-language name. Alexis Jazz (talk) 21:37, 8 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Somali place article titles are a mess in general, reflecting the situation in English sources. Most places use a some version of a name that was used before standardised Somali spelling was introduced in the 1970s. English-language media largely continue to use these spellings. Exceptions are the administrative divisions of Somalia which were reorganised in the 1980s, but the district articles were summarily moved from Somali to "English" names by a now-blocked user a few years ago (e.g. here). The problem with these is that there are multiple variants (e.g. Zeila/Zeyla/Zaila or Burgabo) in various sources. Good luck. — AjaxSmack 16:32, 9 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@AjaxSmack: looking at all this now, I think I would support simply moving everything back to the approved Somali name. Until one spelling in English really becomes standard, stick with the Somali. By picking some particular spelling, Wikipedia promotes that spelling. That's just a form of WP:Citogenesis. Alexis Jazz (talk) 16:59, 9 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I share your concerns about WP:Citogenesis, but this is not the case with non-standard Somali names. I recently created Burgabo based on the most common recent spelling in English sources, rather than going with the Somali Buur Gaabo. Being a new article, the sources predated Wikipedia usage. Referring to an "approved Somali name" is a stretch in a country with no functioning unified central government for a quarter century. Policy says follow the sources; there are plenty of pre-2003 sources in this case. And if there are two roughly equally used variants in the sources, well...uhhh...good luck. — AjaxSmack 00:38, 10 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Has a conclusion been reached? Dekimasuよ! 02:22, 15 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Nobody inside or outside Somalia knows what to call things in Somalia, that seems to be the sad conclusion. In general I would be happy to see things change back to their original names, only in this case I don't know if that means going to the Somali name (Webi Shabeelle) or the Ethiopian name (Wabi Shebele). Ngram suggests the Ethiopian name as is has never heard of the Somali name. Alexis Jazz (talk) 02:22, 16 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.