Linguistic diversity index: Difference between revisions
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'''Linguistic diversity index''' (LDI) or Greenberg’s diversity index is an index to measure how diverse a country’s [[language]]s are. It is on a scale of 1 to 0 with 1 indicating infinite diversity (that is, no two people have the same mother tongue) 0 |
'''Linguistic diversity index''' (LDI) or Greenberg’s diversity index is an index to measure how diverse a country’s [[language]]s are. The index does not consider how different the languages are from each other; it considers only the total number of distinct languages, and their relative frequency as mother tongues.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.terralingua.org/linguisticdiversity/overview/ |tile=overview of Linguishtic Diversity |publisher=terralingua.org |accessdate=2014-11-18}}</ref> It is on a scale of 1 to 0 with 1 indicating infinite diversity (that is, no two people have the same mother tongue) and 0 indicating no diversity at all (that is, everyone has the same mother tongue).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=country |title=Summary by country |publisher=Ethnologue |date=1999-02-19 |accessdate=2013-09-05}}</ref> The computation of the diversity index is based on the population of each language as a proportion of the total population. The index cannot fully account for the vitality of languages. Also, the [[Dialect#Dialect_or_language|distinction]] between a language and a [[dialect]] is fluid and often political. A great number of languages are considered to be dialects of another language by some experts and separate languages by others. |
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==Rankings by country== |
==Rankings by country== |
Revision as of 17:16, 18 November 2014
Linguistic diversity index (LDI) or Greenberg’s diversity index is an index to measure how diverse a country’s languages are. The index does not consider how different the languages are from each other; it considers only the total number of distinct languages, and their relative frequency as mother tongues.[1] It is on a scale of 1 to 0 with 1 indicating infinite diversity (that is, no two people have the same mother tongue) and 0 indicating no diversity at all (that is, everyone has the same mother tongue).[2] The computation of the diversity index is based on the population of each language as a proportion of the total population. The index cannot fully account for the vitality of languages. Also, the distinction between a language and a dialect is fluid and often political. A great number of languages are considered to be dialects of another language by some experts and separate languages by others.
Rankings by country
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (as of 2009) the LDI rankings for the following countries are:[3]
See also
Notes and References
Notes
- ^ Including New Caledonia, a French Overseas Territory with a high level of Linguistic Diversity Index
References
- ^ . terralingua.org http://www.terralingua.org/linguisticdiversity/overview/. Retrieved 2014-11-18.
{{cite web}}
: Missing or empty|title=
(help); Unknown parameter|tile=
ignored (|title=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Summary by country". Ethnologue. 1999-02-19. Retrieved 2013-09-05.
- ^ UNESCO World Report – Investing in Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue
External links
- Terralingua's Index of Language Diversity is a dead link, but similar information is available from the same site at