akistani English, like other South Asian English varieties, developed across three centuries of British colonial presence, with English today serving as an official language of government widely used in all settings (including many middle- and upper-clas homes) as well as an unofficial lingua franca across the country's many linguistic groups. Pakistani English in New York spans all five boroughs and many suburbs, cutting across the country's multilingual communities that collectively speak some 15 native languages in New York. Roughly 60,000 Pakistanis live in the New York metropolitan area, including major hubs outside the five boroughs in Jersey City, Edison and Woodbridge, New Jersey.