[RNLD] Case of Funding denied for languages described as "Vigorous" in Ethnologue.

[Peter Austin]

According to http://www.ethnologue.com/about/history-ethnologue the 17th
edition was released in 2013 with revisions in 2014, so that narrows down
the occasions on which this claim might have been true.

Peter

On Tuesday, 5 August 2014, Stephen Morey <S.Morey at latrobe.edu.au> wrote:

>  Dear RNLD members,
>
> The Wikipedia site on 'Ethnologue' contains the following paragraph:
>
> "With the 17th edition, *Ethnologue* introduced a numerical code for
> language status, along the lines of Fishman’s Graded Inter-generational
> Disruption Scale, that ranks a language from 0 for an international
> language <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_language> to 10 for an extinct
> language <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinct_language> with no attempt
> at revival.[12] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnologue#cite_note-12>
> This has had unintended consequences: Linguists have been denied funding
> for documenting endangered languages because *Ethnologue* rates them as
> "vigorous" (6); in doing so, SIL is addressing a competing concern, that
> missionaries generally cannot get funding to translate scripture *unless*
> the language is vigorous."
>
> Does anyone know of any examples of the denial of funding for a project
> regarded by *Ethnologue* as "vigorous"?
>
> Stephen
>
>   Stephen Morey
> Australian Research Council Future Fellow
> Centre for Research on Language Diversity
> La Trobe University
>  Website:
> http://www.latrobe.edu.au/humanities/about/staff/profile?uname=SMorey
> <http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt/StaffPages/morey.htm>
>
> Language data website: http://sealang.net/assam
> Dictionary websites: http://sealang.net/ahom;  http://sealang.net/singpho;
> http://sealang.net/phake
>
> Linguistic data archived at::
> DoBeS:  http://www.mpi.nl/DoBeS and follow a link to projects, then
> Tangsa, Tai and Singpho in North East India
> ELAR: http://elar.soas.ac.uk
> PARADISEC:  http://www.paradisec.org.au
>
> North East Indian Linguistics Society: http://sealang.net/neils
>


-- 
Prof Peter K. Austin
Marit Rausing Chair in Field Linguistics
Director, Endangered Languages Academic Programme
Research Tutor and PhD Convenor
Department of Linguistics, SOAS
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
United Kingdom

web: http://www.hrelp.org/aboutus/staff/index.php?cd=pa
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