Editing Ethnologue (section)

== Overview and content ==
''Ethnologue'' has been published by SIL Global (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), a Christian [[linguistics|linguistic]] service organization with an international office in [[Dallas]], Texas. The organization studies numerous minority languages to facilitate language development, and to work with speakers of such language communities in translating portions of the Bible into their languages.<ref name="NYT"/> Despite the Christian orientation of its publisher, ''Ethnologue'' is not ideologically or theologically biased.<ref name="Collin2010"/>

''Ethnologue'' includes alternative names and [[Exonym and endonym|autonyms]], the number of L1 and L2 speakers, [[Prestige (sociolinguistics)|language prestige]], domains of use, [[Literacy|literacy rates]], locations, dialects, [[language classification]], [[Language family|linguistic affiliations]], [[Linguistic typology|typology]], language maps, country maps, publication and use in media, availability of the [[Bible]] in each language and dialect described, [[Religious denomination|religious affiliations]] of speakers, a cursory description of revitalization efforts where reported, [[Mutual intelligibility|intelligibility]] and [[lexical similarity]] with other dialects and languages, writing scripts, an estimate of language viability using the [[Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale]] (EGIDS), and bibliographic resources.<ref name="Campbell&Grondona"/><ref name="Chelliah2021"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lewis|first1=M. Paul|first2=Gary F.|last2=Simons|year=2010|title=Assessing Endangerment: Expanding Fishman's GIDS |journal=[[:fr:Revue Roumaine de Linguistique|Romanian Review of Linguistics]]|volume=55|issue=2|pages=103–120 |url = https://www.lingv.ro/RRL%202%202010%20art01Lewis.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240405043558/https://lingv.ro/RRL%202%202010%20art01Lewis.pdf |archive-date= Apr 5, 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bickford|first1=J. Albert|last2=Lewis|first2=M. Paul|first3=Gary F. |last3=Simons|year=2015|title=Rating the vitality of sign languages|journal=Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development|volume=36|issue=5|pages=513–527|doi=10.1080/01434632.2014.966827 |s2cid=55788703|hdl=10125/26131|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref name="pricing"/> Coverage varies depending on languages.<ref name="Campbell&Grondona"/><ref name="Chelliah2021"/> For instance, as of 2008, information on [[word order]] was present for 15% of entries while religious affiliations were mentioned for 38% of languages.<ref name="Campbell&Grondona"/> According to [[Lyle Campbell]] "language maps are highly valuable" and most country maps are of high quality and user-friendly.<ref name="Campbell&Grondona"/>

''Ethnologue'' gathers information from SIL's thousands of [[Field research|field linguists]],<ref name="ScienceOrg2020"/> surveys done by linguists and literacy specialists, observations of [[Bible translations|Bible translators]], and [[Crowdsourcing|crowdsourced]] contributions.<ref name="Chelliah2021">{{Citation |last=Chelliah |first=Shobhana L. |title=Supporting Linguistic Vitality |date=2021 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66190-8_5 |work=Why Language Documentation Matters |series=SpringerBriefs in Linguistics |pages=51–67 |editor-last=Chelliah |editor-first=Shobhana L. |publisher=Springer |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-66190-8_5 |isbn=978-3-030-66190-8 |s2cid=234332845 |access-date=2022-11-23}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-03-23 |title=Careers |url=https://www.sil.org/careers |access-date=2022-11-25 |website=SIL International |language=en}}</ref> SIL's field linguists use an online collaborative research system to review current data, update it, or request its removal.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-09-01 |title=What I did on my summer vacation... |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/ethnoblog/m-paul-lewis/what-i-did-my-summer-vacation |access-date=2022-11-23 |website=Ethnologue |language=en|first=Paul|last=Lewis}}</ref> SIL has a team of editors by geographical area who prepare reports to Ethnologue's general editor. These reports combine opinions from SIL area experts and feedback solicited from non-SIL linguists. Editors have to find compromises when opinions differ.<ref name="Hammarström2005" /> Most of SIL's linguists have taken three to four semesters of graduate linguistics courses, and half of them have a master's degree. They're trained by 300 PhD linguists in SIL.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Olson |first=Kenneth S. |date=2009 |title=SIL International: An Emic View |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40492900 |journal=Language |volume=85 |issue=3 |pages=646–658 |doi=10.1353/lan.0.0156 |jstor=40492900 |s2cid=144082312 |issn=0097-8507}}</ref>
 
The determination of what characteristics define a single language depends upon [[sociolinguistics|sociolinguistic]] evaluation by various scholars; as the preface to ''Ethnologue'' states, "Not all scholars share the same set of criteria for what constitutes a 'language' and what features define a '[[dialect]]'."<ref name="Campbell&Grondona"/> The criteria used by ''Ethnologue'' are [[mutual intelligibility]] and the existence or absence of a common literature or ethnolinguistic identity.<ref name="Campbell&Grondona"/><ref name="Hammarström2005"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/scope.asp |title=Scope of denotation for language identifiers |publisher=SIL International |access-date=2013-06-23}}</ref> The number of languages identified has been steadily increasing, from 5,445 in the 10th edition (in 1984) to 6,909 in the 16th (in 2009), partly due to governments according designation as languages to mutually intelligible varieties and partly due to SIL establishing new Bible translation teams.<ref>{{cite book |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=aUxveGrrv-4C&pg=PA463 |title=Basic Linguistic Theory Volume 3: Further Grammatical Topics |first=R. M. W. |last=Dixon |author-link=Robert M. W. Dixon |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=2012 |pages=463–464 |isbn=978-0-19-957109-3 }}</ref> ''Ethnologue'' codes were used as the base to create the new [[ISO 639-3]] international standard. Since 2007, ''Ethnologue'' relies only on this standard, [[registration authority|administered]] by SIL International,<ref name="iso sil"/> to determine what is listed as a language.<ref name="Campbell&Grondona"/>

In addition to choosing a primary name for a language, ''Ethnologue'' provides listings of other name(s) for the language and any dialects that are used by its speakers, government, foreigners and neighbors. Also included are any names that have been commonly referenced historically, regardless of whether a name is considered official, politically correct or offensive; this allows more complete historic research to be done. These lists of names are not necessarily complete.