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

[Rosey Billington]

Note also that 'vigorous' is the *default *language status - from the
methodology page: "Where the data were not sufficient, we set the EGIDS
default value at EGIDS 6a." Very problematic, given the limited
availability of accurate population and language use data in many parts of
the world.

http://www.ethnologue.com/about/language-status


On Tue, Aug 5, 2014 at 12:51 PM, 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
>
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