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The Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), a Christian linguistic service organization which studies lesser-known languages to provide missionaries for their speakers. It contains statistics for 6,809 languages (2000 edition) and gives the number of speakers, location, dialects, linguistic affiliations, availability of the Bible, etc. It is currently the most comprehensive existing language inventory, along with the Linguasphere Register.What counts as a language depends on socio-linguistic evaluation: see Dialect.
The Ethnologue provides a three- letter code, called SIL code, for each language it describes, the number of which significantly exceeds those of ISO 639 and RFC 3066.
The neutrality of Ethnologue as a scientific institution is sometimes disputed, particularly in areas of language classification associated with the Bible and Abrahamic religion. A notable case is the classification of Arabic and Hebrew, which some suggest is influenced by the scriptural idea of Ishmael and Isaac being brothers. It lists them as both South Central SemiticThe Semitic languages are the northeastern subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic languages, and the only family of this group spoken in Asia. The most common Semitic languages spoken today are Arabic, Amharic, Hebrew, and Tigrinya. The term "Semitic" for these la as opposed to Aramaic, although the scholarly consensus is nearly unanimous that Hebrew and Aramaic group together against Arabic.
In addition to choosing a primary name for the language, it also gives some of the names by which a language is called by its speakers, by the government, by foreigners, by neighbors, etc., and how it has been named and referenced historically, regardless of which designation is considered official, politically correct, or offensive, or by whom. This selection of "alternative names" is extensive, but often incomplete.
As is inevitable in an enterprise so enormous, the Ethnologue contains some errors, some of which it fixes at every edition; for instance, en route to the 14th edition, some languages such as ChenouaThe Chenoua language (self-denomination: Haqbaylit is the Zenati Berber language of Jebel Chenoua in Algeria, just east of Algiers near Tipasa and Cherchell. It is very closely similar to the Berber speech of the Beni Menacer nearby, and the name is thus were added, and some rumoured "languages" such as NemadiAccording to a few sources, the small Nemadi hunting tribe of eastern Mauritania speak a separate language of their own; however, most sources agree that they speak a dialect of Hassaniyya, or in some cases perhaps Azer. The name "Nemadi" itself appears t or WutanaThe sum total of what Temple (1922) has to say about Wutana is: : There are 1,075 Wutana in Bauchi Emirate. 367) and : 105. Wutana, population 1,075 in Bauchi Emirate. On this basis, a hypothetical Wutana language was mentioned in early editions of the Et were removed. Some possible remaining errors are discussed at Imraguen languageThe Imraguen language is allegedly spoken by the tiny (thousand-strong) Imraguen fishing tribe of the Banc d'Arguin National Park on the Atlantic coast of Mauritania. According to Gerteiny (1967), it is "a strange version of Hassaniyya restructured on an, Senhaja de Srair languageThe language of the Senhaja de Srair is a Northern Berber language spoken in the southern part of the Moroccan Rif. It is most closely related to the Atlas languages, but heavily influenced by the neighboring Tarifit language (also Berber. Contrary to the, Ghomara languageThe language of the Ghomara is a Northern Berber language of the Zenati subgroup, spoken on the eastern edge of the Rif in Morocco. Contrary to the Ethnologue, it is not extinct; Peter Behnstedt reports that it is spoken in at least the douar of Amtiqan a, Kwavi language.
