ABSTRACT
The vitality of an ethnolinguistic group or the propensity of individual members of such a group to turn to other members of the group rather than to 'act as isolated individuals' is the ingredient that makes a group behaves collectively. The social parameters are most evident in the concept of vitality. It is claimed that a language group is an ethnic group since language is a symbol of identity and, if people feel themselves to be members of a group, that group must exist regardless of the nature of its basis. The collective nature of this group may well be a subjective phenomenon, but an attempt is made to relate it to objective criteria through the concept of vitality by arguing that the strength of the identity varies in accordance with objective social factors. If, as it appears, ethnic identity is a feature of culturally conditioned subjectivity, this would imply that social factors condition culture.
