Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale
The Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), developed by Lewis and Simons (2010), measures a language's status in terms of endangerment or development.[1][2]
The table below shows the various levels on the scale:
Level | Label | Description | UNESCO |
---|---|---|---|
0 | International | "The language is widely used between nations in trade, knowledge exchange, and international policy." | Safe |
1 | National | "The language is used in education, work, mass media, and government at the national level." | |
2 | Provincial | "The language is used in education, work, mass media, and government within major administrative subdivisions of a nation." | |
3 | Wider Communication | "The language is used in work and mass media without official status to transcend language differences across a region." | |
4 | Educational | "The language is in vigorous use, with standardization and literature being sustained through a widespread system of institutionally supported education." | |
5 | Developing | "The language is in vigorous use, with literature in a standardized form being used by some though this is not yet widespread or sustainable." | |
6a | Vigorous | "The language is used for face-to-face communication by all generations and the situation is sustainable." | |
6b | Threatened | "The language is used for face-to-face communication within all generations, but it is losing users." | Vulnerable |
7 | Shifting | "The child-bearing generation can use the language among themselves, but it is not being transmitted to children." | Definitely Endangered |
8a | Moribund | "The only remaining active speakers of the language are members of the grandparent generation and older." | Severely Endangered |
8b | Nearly Extinct | "The only remaining speakers of the language are members of the grandparent generation or older who have little opportunity to use the language." | Critically Endangered |
9 | Dormant | "The language serves as a reminder of heritage identity for an ethnic community, but no one has more than symbolic proficiency." | Extinct |
10 | Extinct | "The language is no longer used and no one retains a sense of ethnic identity associated with the language." |
The EGIDS model has become widely known, cited in 555 publications as of August 2021.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ Lewis, M. Paul; Simons, Gary F. (2010). "Assessing endangerment: Expanding Fishman's GIDS" (PDF). Revue roumaine de linguistique. 55 (2): 103–120. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
- ^ "Language Status". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2025-02-27.
- ^ "Google Scholar".