Rating the Vitality of Sign Languages
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Issue Date:
2015
Is Part Of Series:
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 36(5), 2015
Extent:
Abstract:
The Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), developed by
Lewis and Simons and based on work by Fishman, provides a means of rating
‘language vitality’ – the level of development or endangerment – where ‘development’
is understood as adding or preserving functions and ‘endangerment’ as loss of
function. In its original form, it did not take sign languages into account. This paper
explains what adjustments are needed to accommodate signed and spoken languages
on an equal basis, recognising and generalising over the sociolinguistic differences in
the two types of language communities. Besides minor wording changes made to
avoid giving the impression that EGIDS applied only to spoken languages, we offer
substantive changes to accommodate different patterns of intergenerational transmission;
to better reflect the role of literacy, education, literature, institutional support, and
standardisation in language development; and to reflect factors other than classic
language shift which can undermine a language’s vitality. Clarifications are made to
the role of interpreters in rating a language’s vitality, and in the definition of a
language of wider communication. Several of these changes provide further insights
into factors that affect the vitality of spoken languages.
Publication Status:
Published
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Has Version:
Entry Number:
59913