Babel in Reverse: Linguistic Diversity in Greater New York
This article originally appeared in a Gotham Center for New York City History newsletter.
In a new digital exhibit made possible by the Robert D. L. Gardiner Foundation and The Gotham Center's "Writing the History of Greater New York" project, linguist and writer Ross Perlin examines the region's linguistic past.
No city in the world — no city in the history of the world — is as linguistically diverse as the New York metropolitan area of the early 21st century. Over the past decade, the work of the Endangered Language Alliance, culminating in the Languages of New York map, has decisively demonstrated how far this diversity goes beyond any official reckoning, identifying over 700 language varieties and counting with at least a few speakers and in many cases large communities. This represents over 10 percent of global linguistic diversity, with the largest numbers from Asia and Africa but every region included — with many of the languages being primarily oral, little-documented, and highly endangered. Read more...