EGIDS

Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale

EGIDS is an expansion of Joshua Fishman's Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale. Fishman first introduced GIDS in his book Reversing Language Shift. GIDS was designed with European languages in mind, especially Yiddish which is close to Fishman's heart. When GIDS was applied to languages outside of Europe, problems arose. Paul Lewis and Gary Simons took the task of expanding GIDS so that any language in the world could be scored using it, hence the Expanded Intergenerational Disruption Scale. Each level has a number and label, given below.

EGIDS Table

Level	Label	Description
0	International	The language is used internationally for a broad range of functions.
1	National	Language used in education, work, mass media, govt at the nationwide level.
2	Regional	The language is used for local and regional mass media and govt services.
3	Trade	The language is used for local and regional work by both insiders and outsiders.
4	Educational	Literacy in language is being transmitted through a system of public education. This is considered the level of sustainable literacy. In order to be scored a 4 the language must be at, or above a 4 in all FAMED conditions.
5	Written	The language is used orally by all generations and is effectively used in written form in parts of the community.
6a	Vigorous	The language is used orally by all generations and is being learned by children as their first language. This is considered the level of sustainable orality. In order to be scored a 6a the language must be at, or above a 6a in all FAMED conditions.
6b	Threatened	The language is used orally by all generations but only some of the child-bearing generation are transmitting it to their children.
7	Shifting	The child-bearing generation knows the language well enough to use it among themselves but none are transmitting it to their children.
8a	Moribund	The only remaining active speakers of the language are members of the grandparent generation.
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.
9	Dormant	The language serves as a reminder of heritage identity for an ethnic community. No one has more than symbolic proficiency. This is the level of sustainable identity. This is the state where no fully proficient speakers remain but the language is still closely associated with the community identity and is used as a symbolic marker and reinforcer of that identity.
10	Extinct	No one retains a sense of ethnic identity associated with the language, even for symbolic purposes. This is the level of sustainable history.

from Lewis, M. P., & Simons, G. F. (2010).

Sustainable Use Model

The EGIDS table above references levels of sustainability. There are four levels of sustainable use:

• Sustainable History: This corresponds to EGIDS level 10
• Sustainable Identity: This corresponds to EGIDS level 9
• Sustainable Orality: This corresponds to EGIDS level 6a
• Sustainable Literacy: This corresponds to EGIDS level 4

The idea is that a language is in a transitory state if it resides between these sustainable levels. It will either move up the scale toward a higher level of sustainability if active language development is occurring, or it will slide down the scale to a lower level of sustainability if there is no language development occurring. So if a language is a 6b, it is missing something crucial to keep up from the sustainable orality level of 6a. If something is not done to develop the language, it will never be a 61 and will in fact slide down to the sustainable identity level, EGIDS 9, eventually.

Sustainable History

A language is at the level of sustainable history when there are no longer any speakers of the language (L1 or otherwise), but there is enough documentation and it is being stored in a way to make it retrievable. All FAMED conditions must be at a level 10 or higher.

Sustainable Identity

A language is at the level of sustainable identity when there is a group of people who identify with the language as a part of their heritage, but there are still no speakers. All FAMED conditions must be at a level 9 or higher.

Sustainable Orality

A language is at the level of sustainable orality when the entire language community is using the language orally. This does not assume monolingualism, but that in a multilingual community, the language has its place and all members of the community use it according to those social norms. Also transmission to children is occurring in the entire community. All FAMED conditions must be at a level 6a or higher.

Sustainable Literacy

A language is at the level of sustainable literacy when the language has a written form, a corpus of some kind, and (most importantly) a sustainable institution teaching literacy to the community. A sustainable institution is most likely going to be government schools, but may be run by an NGO, or the community itself in some contexts. All FAMED conditions must be at a level 4 or higher.

FAMED Conditions

The FAMED conditions have been referenced several times already in this page. They are:

• Function
• Acquisition
• Motivation
• External Environment
• Distinct Niche (formerly Diglossia)

Function

Put simply, the function condition asks us, "Is the language able to function in the domains the language community wants/needs?" If a language development program wants to help a language community get their language to the sustainable orality level (EGIDS 6a) they must ensure that the language is equipped for people to use orally in everyday life. This will probably include an aspect of what Cooper calls 'modernization' (1989:149-153, but be sure to read this book cover to cover). Can people talk about computers, cars, or refrigerators in their language? It is possible, and occurs frequently, that a language community uses a language other than L1 to talk about these things and be vital, but it is something to look at. Key Word development by Bible Translations (BT) organizations fit in quite nicely here.

A language moving toward sustainable literacy (EGIDS level 4) needs to have an orthography and a corpus that people want to read. You can see now that BT organizations excel in Function.

Acquisition

Here we are talking of how people learn to speak, and at higher levels read and write their language. What social structures are in place to help children learn to speak their language? At lower levels, language development in Acquisition could include encouraging older generations to teach their children and grandchildren to speak their language. At higher levels it will include literacy classes, or advocating for government schools to be taught in and teach the language. Again, BT organizations excel here.

Motivation

In order for a language to be spoken, read, or written, people must want to do those things. Simply expanding the Functions of a language and making Acquisition possible will never be enough. Advocacy in the community will be essential, but never overlook the felt needs of the community. If the community feels there is no economic future in speaking their language, no amount of advocacy will change their minds. The community must have its issues answered one-by-one and with care. If people can see their social, economic, and religious needs can be met by their language, the motivation exists for them to continue to speak it.

The same is true with literacy. A community needs to feel motivated to use their language in a written form for sustainable literacy to be achieved. Can their social, economic, and religious needs be met by the written form of their language? If so, sustainable literacy is possible.

External Environment

As the title suggests, this condition exists completely outside the control of the language community. If the government over the language community is against the use of the language, it will be very difficult for that community to retain sustainable orality. Simply speaking there are three different stances a government can take towards a language:

• Negative
• Neutral
• Positive

Negative Government

If there is a government policy against a language, and it is carried out (there is a difference between policy and action) it will be hard for that language community to retain use of their language, in literacy, orality, and possible even as a part of their heritage.

Neutral Government

A neutral government has no policy against a language, but it also does not have one supporting the language. Primarily, this means there is no funding. Without funding from the government education in the language will be difficult or impossible. This means that sustainable orality is possible under a neutral government, but sustainable literacy will be very difficult, if not impossible. One other aspect of a neutral government is prestige. A language that the government doesn't support lacks prestige compared to a language that does have support.

Another important note here, a government can in fact have a positive policy toward a language, but if policy is not backed up with action it remains a neutral government. Some governments have hundreds of minority languages within its borders and supporting them all is just financially impossible. A positive policy is on the books and in an ideal world this government would have all the funds it needs to support every language, but reality intervenes, and practically the government remains neutral.

Positive Government

A government that is positive towards a language has a positive policy on the books, and backs it up, primarily with funding. Funding provides a language community with the possibility of sustainable literacy through institutionalized education in and of the language. A positive government can also help towards a high motivation to learn/use the language as well, but not necessarily.

Distinct Niche

The world is multilingual. In order for a language to be spoken in a multilingual society it must have a place. For sustainability to be possible at an level, the place of the language must be established by the society and held there through social norms. This can be thought of mainly in terms of language domains. In what contexts, with whom, where, and which topics, are different languages used in a society? These are the questions that need to be assessed. Monolingualism should not be the goal of a language development project. A stable set of social norms governing when a language is used will ensure the future of a language in that society. If there is a shift in those social norms, sustainability is threatened.

In previous literature this was called 'Diglossic Norms'. Everything that was said of it applies here.

Suggested Readings

Cooper, Robert L. 1989. Language Planning and Social Change. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

Lewis, M. P., & Simons, G. F. (2010). Assessing Endangerment: Expanding Fishman's GIDS. Romanian Review of Linguistics, 55(2), 103-120 available online