Ethnologue
Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of
SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), a
Christian linguistic service organization which studies lesser-known languages primarily to provide the speakers with
Bibles in their native language.
The Ethnologue contains statistics for 6,912
languages in the 15th edition, released in
2005 (up from 6,809 in the 14th edition, released
2000) and gives the number of speakers, location, dialects, linguistic affiliations, availability of the
Bible, and so forth. It is currently the most comprehensive existing language inventory, along with the
Linguasphere Register. However, some information regarding more esoteric languages is quite dated.
What counts as a language depends on socio-linguistic evaluation: see
Dialect.
In 1984 the Ethnologue released a three-letter coding system, called SIL code, to identify each language it describes. This set of codes significantly exceeded the scope of previous standards e.g.
ISO 639-1 and RFC 3066. The 14th edition, published in 2000, included 7148 language codes which generally did not match the
ISO 639-2 codes. In 2002 the Ethnologue was asked to work with the International Standardization Organization (ISO) to integrate its codes into a draft international standard. The Ethnologue now uses this standard, called
ISO 639-3. The 15th edition which was published in 2005 includes 7299 codes.
The
neutrality of Ethnologue as a scientific institution is sometimes disputed, for example in the classification of
Semitic languages.
Conversely, the
neutrality of Ethnologue as a scientific institution is sometimes lauded: in addition to choosing a primary name for the language, it also gives some of the names by which a language is called by its speakers, by the government, by foreigners, and by neighbors, as well as how it has been named and referenced historically, regardless of which designation is considered official, politically correct, or offensive, or by whom. This selection of "alternative names" is extensive, but often incomplete.
As is inevitable in an enterprise so enormous, the Ethnologue contains some errors, some of which it fixes at every edition; for instance, en route to the 14th edition, some languages such as
Chenoua were added, and some rumoured "languages" such as
Nemadi or
Wutana were removed. Some possible remaining errors are discussed at
Imraguen language,
Senhaja de Srair language,
Ghomara language,
Kwavi language,
Molengue language,
Yauma language,
Fer language,
Yeni language,
Hwla language, and
Ofayé.
Linguistics
Ethnologue has been accused of going against general linguistic community consensus (and contrary to the opinion of the majority of the speakers themselves in some cases) as to what constitutes a separate
language (as opposed to a
dialect). More notable are the classification of
Flemish and several dialects of
Swedish as separate languages with unique language codes. In cases like
Scanian, the dialect does not meet the minimum criteria for
mutual unintelligibility from
Standard Swedish. Ethnologue also attributes separate language status to "
Yinglish", an English vernacular spoken by some Jewish Americans which is to some degree influenced by the Yiddish and Hebrew languages. Some of these classifications don't meet Ethnologue's own professed criteria for classification.[
1]
Statistics
In some cases Ethnologue's estimates about the number of the speakers of the languages do not concur with other sources. For example, in Ethnologue, the speakers of
Persian and
Azerbaijani languages in
Iran are estimated as 36% and 37%, respectively. In
The World Factbook, these percentages are estimated as 51% and 24%. This mismatch however does not necessarily mean Ethnologue's statistics are any less reliable than other sources. In this case the Iranian government has not published statistics on different ethnicities and their languages, leading to widely differing estimates by outside sources.
*
Language*
List of languages*
Web version of The Ethnologue**
Introduction to the Printed Volume**
Three-letter codes for identifying languages**
Three-letter codes for identifying languages: Updating codes from the 14th Edition to the 15th Edition**
Ethnologue - History*
Review of the 15th edition, by Ole Stig Andersen (
Danmarks Radio)
*
How Linguists and Missionaries Share a Bible of 6,912 Languages (
New York Times)
*
Linguasphere Press*
"Mapping Between ISO 639 and the SIL Ethnologue: Principles Used and Lessons Learned"
