A citizen of eSwatini

Question

eSwatini (officially the Kingdom of eSwatini) is the new name of Swaziland. What should one call a citizen of eSwatini in English?

A citizen of eSwatini is called a[n] _____.

~~I can think of the following candidates: a liSwati, a Swati, an eSwatini, a Swazi.~~

I'm not asking for an invented word. Just for the word that is appropriate now (after the country's name-change).

The wikipedia website, linked to by @user3850720, gives 'liSwati', which, in a sense, is the final answer. Is there something more that you want? Since it is so new to English, it's hard to tell if it'll catch on. Local linguistic nuances are generally hard to get accepted generally. For example, 'Kiswahili' is supposed to be the name of the language, but almost entirely in English is the term 'Swahili' used. Having a different and unexpected prefix for each of person, people, language and country is a lot to ask. I wonder what the news bureau's have decided on? — Mitch, Commented Apr 30, 2018 at 12:55
I suspect that 1) all the news agencies which have an Africa desk are having discussions about this 2) I bet they're having the same questions. My guess is (as to what is most natural is 'a Swati' or 'someone from eSwatini'. (the first for ease in remembering, the second for ). The eSwatini government has probably been asked what they want English speakers to use, too, so surely there's an 'official' version. — Mitch, Commented Apr 30, 2018 at 18:38
All Wikipedia sites list the demonym as Swazi. If they previously said something else, then it must have been changed to something else and then changed back (as I recall it was Swazi before). So at least "Swazi" is deliberate here. Wikipedia may not be definitive, but if we can't find a clear answer, I don't think you'll have to be embarrassed if you're wrong. — Maverick, Commented Apr 30, 2018 at 18:58

jxh · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-10 01:24:28Z

3

According to Wikipedia, the term would be liSwati.

A citizen of eSwatini is called a liSwati.

answered May 10, 2018 at 1:24

jxh

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Isn't that the term in Swazi? I see no evidence that it's used in English (however, the name change of the country only happened a few weeks ago).
– Laurel ♦
Commented May 10, 2018 at 1:45
2

Some corroboration on the gov't website: "AS THE NATION PREPARES TO CAST ITS VOTES IN THE COMING MONTHS, WE ENCOURAGE EVERY LISWATI TO FULLY PARTICIPATE IN THE NATIONAL ELECTIONS", gov.sz/images/speech2018.pdf. They also use the plural 'EMASWATI' there. (The whole speech was written in capitals.) The document seems to be made on 16 Feb 2018.
– Řídící
Commented May 10, 2018 at 7:13

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