Explore ELA Data

All dots on the map represent site-based ELA data, drawing on information from communities, speakers, and other sources. To see only the languages of a particular region, country etc. on the map, use the filtering in Data. For an explanation of the options below, visit Help.
Languages
ELA has documented the use of ~750 language varieties from all over the world in the New York area, listed here alphabetically by the common language name in English, along with the endonym (the name the speakers themselves use). Some may be considered dialects by their users or by outsiders, while others may be macrolanguages subsuming many distinct languages.
World Regions
Every region of the world is represented in NYC, though some much more than others. The United Nations geoscheme is just one system, used here for convenience, for classifying the world's countries into regions. All such systems are flawed and problematic. Technical constraints require us to classify every language as belonging to just one world region, applying the UN geoscheme for consistency.
Countries
Speakers of languages from at least 195 countries are represented in NYC, not including sub-national units and other territories. Languages are listed under a country (and vice versa) only if they have a substantial concentration there and are spoken in the NYC metro area. Country tags and flags used on this map are a technical function of current border regimes, however unjust, and nothing more. 
Language Families
Languages used by New Yorkers are grouped by linguists into dozens of language families based on hypothesized descent from a common ancestral language. While many fall into larger families such as Austronesian, Indo-European, and Sino-Tibetan, smaller families are represented too, as our language isolates. Sub-families (e.g. Romance, Semitic) are not included.
Neighborhoods
All NYC neighborhoods are linguistically diverse, but some much more so than others. The map shows significant sites and does not try to list every language spoken in every neighborhood. Neighborhood names and boundaries (NYC only) follow local practice as much as possible, though no definitive standards exist.
Macrocommunities
Language communities are connected to each other in numerous ways besides sharing roots in the same country or world region, or living now in the same neighborhood. Macrocommunities is an informal term for the larger cultural, geographic, or religious communities in NYC which include speakers of many different languages.
Towns
The NYC metro region, including hundreds of smaller cities and large towns, is increasingly linguistically diverse. The map shows signficant sites and does not try to list every language spoken in every town. The focus is on communities speaking less common languages, with significant sites in certain towns.
Counties
The entire 31-county tri-state area (including the 5 counties aka "boroughs" of NYC), as defined by NYC's Department of City Planning, is characterized by increasing linguistic diversity. Though the focus is on NYC, see below for at least one data point per county, with many for the more diverse counties. The focus is on communities speaking less common languages.
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An urban language map

Welcome to Languages of New York City, a free and interactive digital map of the world’s most linguistically diverse metropolitan area.

All data, unless otherwise specified, is from the Endangered Language Alliance (ELA), based on information from communities, speakers, and other sources.

The map is a work in progress and a partial snapshot, focused on significant sites for Indigenous, minority, and endangered languages. Larger languages are represented selectively. To protect the privacy of speakers, some locations are slightly altered. Social media users, note that LANGUAGEMAP.NYC works best in a separate browser. We apologize that the map may not be fully accessible to all users, including the visually impaired.

This map was created by the Mapping Linguistic Diversity team, with core support from the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies and the Endangered Language Alliance. Please send feedback!

By continuing I acknowledge that I have read and accept the above information.