hile many of the first Italian New Yorkers were speakers of Ligurian, Piedmontese, Lombard, and Tuscan varieties, the overwhelming majority have been southerners who spoke forms of Sicilian, Neapolitan, Calabrese, and Pugliese. Given that less than 10 percent of the population spoke the national language (Italian) at the time of unification in the 19th century, most Italian New Yorkers were speakers of these (often not mutually intelligible) "dialects" who only learned Italian later, if at all. Diversity and clustering were the norm in all the major early Italian neighborhoods, with a Neapolitan-based koine reported as a common language among southern Italian immigrants. Little Italy and Greenwich Village were the crucible, but patterns were highly specific — for example Sicilians, especially from Sambucca, on Elizabeth Street, Neapolitans and Calabrians on Mulberry; Genoese on Baxter; Tyroleans and others from the far north of Italy on 69th Street by the Hudson, and so on. The first Italians in East Harlem, arriving in 1878, were reportedly from Polla in the province of Salerno, and settled in the vicinity of 115th Street; later, there was a Barese (Pugliese) community on East 112th Street; a group from Sarno near Naples on 107th; Calabrians on 109th; immigrants from Basilicata between 110th and 115th. Soon after, Calabrians, Campanians, and Sicilians involved with constructing streets, railways, and Croton Reservoir settled in the Bronx. Important areas where second- and third-generation Italian-Americans settled, as well as post-Second World War migrants who may still know the languages have included Bensonhurst, Ridgewood, Morris Park, much of Staten Island, and numerous New Jersey, Long Island, and Westchester suburbs, to name just a few. Nearly all of the substantial linguistic diversity of southern Italy has been represented at some point in the New York area, but there have also been lesser-known but still substantial groups speaking varieties from places like Lazio (e.g. Ripa) and Emilia Romagna (e.g. Piacenza), as well as individuals and a few communities speaking very different northern varieties, such as Nones and Friulian in Queens.