Ethnologue

[Larry Trask]

On Fri, 19 Mar 1999, Sheila Watts wrote:

[somebody else]

> >BTW, there is on the web, a neat site called Enthnologue put up by
> >the SIT that is a catalogue of world languages (I think it is UN
> >info.)

[snip sample]

> I _do_ hope this is not the UN's info. Though it could be a good
> reason to persuade them to hire some linguists at large salaries.

The Ethnologue volume is compiled and published by a division of the
Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL).  As far as I know, it has no
connection with the UN.  The information contained in it is derived from
an almost limitless variety of sources, of quite variable nature and
quality, and there are lots and lots of errors.

The book is updated every few years.  The most recent paper edition, I
think, is still the 12th (1992), but a new edition is in preparation and
should be out soon, or it may even be out already, though I haven't seen
it yet.  I haven't checked the Website lately; maybe that has already
been updated.

The editors of Ethnologue actively encourage specialists to write in
with corrections, which they are happy to incorporate in their next
edition.  I've done this myself, and anybody who finds misinformation on
the site or in the paper edition should consider sending in corrections.
Ethnologue is the most serious attempt I know of at assembling
comprehensive information about the world's languages (signed as well as
spoken) in one place, and it deserves support.

Incidentally, the 1992 edition reports just over 6500 spoken languages
as currently in use, plus some dozens of sign languages.  This is
probably the most accurate count we have.  Strangely, though, a recent
survey based in Wales and carried out by an organization called (I
think; might have this wrong) the Observatoire Linguistique, which seems
to have some kind of link to UNESCO, has apparently reported the
astounding total of over 10,000 languages -- a number which I will take
with a grain of salt until I see the data.  This was reported in the
newspaper a year or two ago, but, since then, I've heard nothing
further.  Has anybody else?

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk