Brian on 05/29/2003 09:37:31 AM: > Why is Ethnologue flawed?
Because: 1. research that has gone into it has only been going on for 50 years with limited manpower, not 150 with unlimited manpower; 2. linguistic and sociolinguistic change is on-going, and it is difficult to keep research current on all of the change that occurs (see 1); and especially 3. language as a phenomenon does not occur in discrete, sharply defined categories, but involves a large number of possible parameters of variation; hence, any attempt to enumerate "languages" must be the result of a process of analytical abstraction that merely approximates reality (but is still useful, and is done because in practical terms organisations must conduct their business in terms of a finite list of entities rather than an all-but-endlessly variable continuum). As John Cowan said, any aspiration of a flawless catalogue of languages is a pipe-dream; and I'd also add, it's naive. - Peter --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Constable Non-Roman Script Initiative, SIL International 7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236, USA Tel: +1 972 708 7485
