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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:

Editing the language vitality table

To edit the language vitality table:

  1. look up a language's vitality rating on these three websites (if availabe):
  2. look up ratings given by each database and match them in the table below to the corresponding colour codes;
  3. 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”.
  4. 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 safe institutional institutional safe safe not endangered not endangereded
- - - - at risk at risk - -
vulnerable vulnerable stable stable vulnerable vulnerable - -
- - - - threatened threatened threatened threatened
definitely endangered definitely endangered - - endangered endangered shifting shifting
severely endangered severely endangered endangered endangered severely endangered severely endangered moribund moribund
critically endangered critically endangered - - critically endangered critically endangered nearly extinct nearly extinct
extinct extinct extinct extinct dormant dormant extinct extinct
- - - - awakening 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
manual/colour_codes.txt · Last modified: 2024/10/16 13:08 by ydwine