The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. Should be expanded of course, but now that the topic has been shown to be actually a thing, it's now an editorial decision. King of ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ 04:39, 15 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Gilaki and Mazandarani[edit]

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I'm not sure why this page was ever created; grouping these two names into one title doesn't help readers. We have the dab pages Gilaki and Mazanderani to address the different facets of the two names (people, language, etc.). This page is simply superfluous. I'm bringing it here because there was a PROD earlier in its history. — Gorthian (talk) 01:25, 8 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Ethnic groups-related deletion discussions. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 02:01, 8 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Disambiguations-related deletion discussions. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 02:01, 8 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Language-related deletion discussions. – Uanfala (talk) 02:12, 8 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Iran-related deletion discussions. – Uanfala (talk) 02:12, 8 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Delete. The earliest version of this page asserted that Gilaki language and Mazanderani language are dialects of Farsi. Such divisions are often controversial, but as far as I can tell from a quick skim of the literature, that notion is not the dominant one in the field. Turning the page into a DAB was apparently a response to disagreement among Wikipedians regard treatment of the language varieties or groups of people at issue. As Gorthian points out, disambiguation is already provided at the separate names. I'll add See also to each making them point to one another. Cnilep (talk) 03:34, 8 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The phrase "Gilaki and Mazandarani" seems to be frequently used to refer the (macro?)ethnicity comprising the Gilaks and the Mazandaranis [1] [2] [3]. Ideally, this should be a redirect to some article that covers them both, but I'm not seeing any – Caspian people is about a different group, and I'm not finding anything in the relevant demographics or province articles. Given that, I'd suggest keeping and, echoing the older version of the article that was about the languages, leaving a "see also" entry for Caspian languages which covers the group that Gilaki language and Mazandarani language belong to, and where the two are prominently linked. – Uanfala (talk) 11:19, 8 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Striking my earlier !vote. As Uanfala notes, the label "Gilaki and Mazandarani" is used in some scholarly literature to refer to an ethnic group. Cnilep (talk) 01:59, 15 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Comment: @Uanfala and Cnilep: It sounds as if this is more of a WP:DABCONCEPT than just a straightforward dab page. Do either of you want to take it on, to make it into an article? Even a stub? I am woefully inadequate in these fields, and have little access to anything other than free online sources. — Gorthian (talk) 03:20, 15 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.