Table of Contents
Language Vitality Table
Some large platforms focus on (socio)linguistic data and resources on (endangered) languages. Several calculate the language vitality of the listed languages, for which the education of the language is (one) of the key factors 1)2)3). Information of such platforms are incorporated in the Wiki entries by means of the Language Vitality Table.
These are:
- UNESCO World Atlas of Languages with the UNESCO’s Language Vitality and Endangerment framework
- Glottolog with the Agglomerated Endangerment Status (AES)
- Endangered Languages Project with the the Language Endangerment Index (LEI)
- Ethnologue . The Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS)
Editing the language vitality table
To edit the language vitality table:
- look up a language's vitality rating on these three websites (if availabe):
- look up ratings given by each database and match them in the table below to the corresponding colour codes;
- fill in the vitality table with the corresponding colour codes, by adding images to the table. The colour code images can be inserted using the toolbar. The colour code images are located in the Media manager, in the folder “endangerment”.
- add text (the label of vitality) to your image in between the {..}. For example: endangerment:yellow.png?nolink |Threatened
Colour code table
| UNESCO | Ethnologue | Endangered Languages | Glottolog | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| framework | code | EGIDS | code | LEI | code | AES | code |
| safe |  | institutional | | safe | | not endangered | |
| - | - | - | - | at risk |  | - | - |
| vulnerable | | stable | | vulnerable | | - | - |
| - | - | - | - | threatened |  | threatened | |
| definitely endangered | | - | - | endangered | | shifting | |
| severely endangered |  | endangered | | severely endangered | | moribund | |
| critically endangered |  | - | - | critically endangered | | nearly extinct | |
| extinct |  | extinct | | dormant | | extinct | |
| - | - | - | - | awakening |  | - | - |
Note on the wiki's use on colour codes
The colour codes correspond with descriptions of language vitality given by four websites: the website of Unesco's Atlas for languages in danger, the online Ethnologue, the Endangered Languages website, and Glottolog.
Each website uses its own, unrelated, system to rate a language's vitality, using terms such as “vulnerable”, “endangered”, “critically endangered”, etc. Mercator's wiki chooses to represent these vitality descriptions with colour codes, so that the viewer can quickly get an idea of the language's vitality.
In 2024, the colour codes were updated on the Wiki, as changes were made in the scales of Ethnologue.
1)
Lewis, M. P., & Simons, G. F. (2010). Assessing endangerment: Expanding Fishman's GIDS. Revue Roumaine de Linguistique 55(2), 103–20. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228384852_Assessing_endangerment_Expanding_Fishman%27s_GIDS
2)
UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages. (2003). Language Vitality and Endangerment. International Expert Meeting on the UNESCO Programme Safeguarding of Endangered Languages, Paris, 2003, CLT/CEI/DCE/ELP/PI/2003/1. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000183699
3)
Lee N.H. & Van Way J. (2016). Assessing levels of endangerment in the Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ELCat) using the Language Endangerment Index (LEI). Language in Society. 2016;45(2):271-292. doi:10.1017/S0047404515000962