he Permanent Mission of the Republic of Maldives to the UN estimates that 40 Maldivians live in the US, fewer than 20 of which are in New York City. All are bilingual in Dhivehi, the national language, as well as English, and the majority live in Brooklyn, but are not clustered in a specific neighborhood. Dhivehi has two primary dialects, one spoken by those on the Southern Maldives, and the other in the central and northern islands, as well as in the nation's capital Malé. While speakers of the Southern dialect reportedly have no trouble understanding northeners, the opposite is not always the case.