Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale
{{Short description|Scale measuring how much endangered or developed a language is}}
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The Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), developed by Lewis and Simons (2010) as an expansion of Joshua Fishman's GIDS, measures a language's status in terms of endangerment or development.{{cite journal |last1=Lewis |first1=M. Paul |last2=Simons |first2=Gary F. |date=2010 |title=Assessing endangerment: Expanding Fishman's GIDS |url=https://www.lingv.ro/RRL%202%202010%20art01Lewis.pdf |journal=Revue roumaine de linguistique |volume=55 |issue=2 |pages=103–120 |accessdate=28 March 2020}}{{Cite web |title=Language Status |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/methodology/#Status |access-date=2025-02-27 |website=Ethnologue |language=en}}
The table below shows the various levels on the scale:
| class="wikitable" | |||
| Level
! Label ! Description ! UNESCO | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | International | "The language is widely used between nations in trade, knowledge exchange, and international policy." | rowspan="7" | 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." | rowspan="2" | Extinct |
| 10 | Extinct | "The language is no longer used and no one retains a sense of ethnic identity associated with the language." |
Fishman's GIDS had levels 1 to 8.{{cite book |first=Joshua A. |last=Fishman |title=Reversing Language Shift |publisher=Multilingual Matters |year=1991 |isbn=978-1-85359-121-1 |pages=87–109 }} EGIDS adds levels 0, 9 and 10, and splits Fishman's levels 6 and 8 into two parts each.
The EGIDS model has become widely known, cited in 911 publications as of May 2025.{{Cite web|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C44&q=%22Assessing+endangerment%3A+Expanding+Fishman%27s+GIDS%22.+Revue+roumaine+de+linguistique.+55+%282%29%3A+103%E2%80%93120.+&btnG=|title=Google Scholar}}
This model was developed for spoken languages. It has also been adapted for use with sign languages.{{cite journal |last1=Bickford |first1=J. Albert |first2=M. Paul |last2=Lewis |first3=Gary F. |last3=Simons |title=Rating the vitality of sign languages |journal=Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development |volume=36 |issue=5 |year=2015 |pages=513–527 |doi=10.1080/01434632.2014.966827 }} (conference presentation at {{hdl|10125/26131}})