Abasina
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| State | Baranxtu | |||
| Capital | Lamaŋra | |||
| Languages Primary/Working Official (province) Unofficial |
Baranxeï Middle Baranxeï Jjiri, Qi, Daunis, Abasi | |||
| Governor | Mekla Nisibatu Sehatita | |||
 Location in Baranxtu | ||||
Abasina is one of the provinces of Baranxtu. It is the northwesternmost province and the least populous, being the only province with only barely a million inhabitants.
Most Abasinans belong to the Traditional Baranxtuans, who mostly speak a form of Middle Baranxeï. The province is the only one which is not connected to the internet, due to the radically conservative and archaic politics that the ruling party, which has governed the province for more than 30 years.
In the 2006 Reforms, a major piece in the southwest of Abasina was split from the province to create Āþ-Dorista. These counties all had a non-Traditional Baranxtuan majority.
Name
Abasina (Abasinan Baranxeï: Aipašina) is composed of Abas and -ina. The former is the Baranxeï name for the indigenous tribe that lived in the area, and -ina is a suffix meaning hills (variations include -na, -ma and also -ra, and old maps of the area indeed show the Abasinan peninsula as Abasna, Abasma and Abasrya and similar names).
The name (or a variety thereof) was not used until the middle of the 18th century. Earlier, the term Dorisaφja (which the name for modern day Dorista is derived from) was used, as it was for every region west of the Baranxtuan settlements. The first definite use of the term Abasina is in a map from 1756, where the peninsula is either called Apašina or Apašrya (the last three letters are almost illegible and in Baranxeï, 'in' and 'ry' can look very much alike).
The term Abas itself is not the indigenous name for the main tribe populating the area, after whom the region was named. The Abas people name in Akes Mersanintis Humbaliri. The exact origin of the term remains unknown, but several theories have been proposed:
- Abas are named after a Baranxtuan deity.
- As the Abasinan Baranxeï terms suggests, it is derived from Middle Baranxeï Aypasja (today Aibaša), an old Baranxtuan goddess of rice whose importance was diminuished by the growing cult of Baranxi. Indeed, the Abasina peninsula was called the 'granary of the south' up until the middle of the 18th century, until Ziaha and Dorista took over this role.
- The deity in question is Asuani, whose name in an extinct relative of Baranxeï was Asban or Aisban. Through metathesis, the name changed to 'Absan' and then through epenthesis to 'Abasan' which gave rise to the name Abasina. The reason for this naming was never given, but only stated as a possibility by some Baranxtuan linguists.
- Abas is the name (or a derivation thereof) of a chieftain of one of the Humbaliri subtribes who made first contacts with the Baranxtuans. Various candidates have been proposed, for example:
- Aipa, who was chieftainess of a trading post in the Jjiri-Abasina borderland (late 17th century) where most of the Humbaliri-Baranxtuan trade took place back then
- Ejeb, who was chieftain of the same village in the early 18th century
- Happas, who was a priestess (and possibly leader) of a coastal merchant town close to modern day Lamaggra and who was substantial in drafting a peace treaty between the Humbaliri tribe and the Baranxtuans
- Abas received its name from the Humbaliri deity Appas. Although it seems more likely than the first theory, many historians doubt this as Appas was only revered in the northwesternmost area which did not come into direct contact with Baranxtu until the late 18th century, when the name Abasina was already well established.
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