Language Status
Language status refers to sociolinguistic characteristics of the language that show how it is used within a society and in its wider context. One way to provide a summary of a language’s status in society is to use the the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale, or EGIDS. The EGIDS was developed to provide an estimate of how likely a language is to go extinct. The lower the number, the lower the risk of extinction. For example, level 0 are languages that are widely used internationally, like English, French, and Spanish. Further down the scale are languages of wider communication, which are used in work or mass media without official status to transcend language differences. This could include creolized languages like some of the West African English creoles like Cameroon English Pidgin, which are used widely when people don’t speak the same language, but they don’t have official status. Further down the list are “moribund” languages, where the only remaining users are members of the grandparent generation. Although the language is still alive, without major changes, it will go extinct.
In this sample, most of the languages are in the developing category, which means that the languages are used for communication by all generations, has some literature in a standardized form, but the literature is not widespread or sustainable. The next most common category is educational languages, where standardized literature is widespread and is supported through the education system.
Two languages in the national category were included, which means that they are used in all domains at a national level, including education, work, media, and government services. These languages are outside of the bounds of this paper, but one was involved in cluster project that was discussed as a unit, so information on the national language cannot be differentiated from languages with lower scores on the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale. In the other case, the description of work with the national language provided a helpful contrast and clarified issues that are widespread, even for languages with more national support. Unless otherwise noted, languages at EGIDS 1 are not included in language statistics and descriptions. Language names will not be published because it would compromise the anonymity of participants, but the following statistics are provided to allow for a general picture of the languages described in the study.