This study presents some problematic issues concerning the conceptualisation, exploration and use of ‘Ethnolinguistic Vitality’ (EV). Drawing on research on language attitudes, shift and the EV of the Greek-Orthodox community in Istanbul, this study approves the tripartite conceptualisation of the EV framework in evaluating both subjective and objective vitality through quantitative and qualitative methods. It further argues that EV research can be enhanced by ethnographic/observational and etic and emic approaches and discourse analytic frameworks.