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

[Stephen Morey]

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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