བོད་སྐད་
Tibetan
Woodside +2What is commonly called Tibetan is increasingly known to linguists as Tibetic, a substantial and diverse branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family with over 50 varieties of often limited mutual intelligibility spoken across the traditional Tibetan cultural sphere of the Himalaya in today’s China, Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bhutan — and, increasingly, around the world. For many, not only Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan alphabet, but also the Classical Tibetan of religious scripture and the modern "Diaspora Standard" Tibetan (based on the Lhasa variety), and sometimes a mixed Ramaluk all serve as common lingua francas uniting people whose home languages are quite different. Among the large groups in New York for whom Tibetan is a common second or third language are speakers of Sherpa, Loke, Dzongkha, and varieties of Amdo and Kham Tibetan (themselves very internally diverse).
M
ost Tibetan New Yorkers have settled in the Queens neighborhoods of Astoria, Sunnyside, Woodside, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and Corona among other South Asian and Himalayan communities. The growing community is creating and maintaining a tremendous range of communal, political, cultural, artistic, and other organizations, prominent among them the Tibetan Community of New York & New Jersey (with its Woodside headquarters) and the New York Tibetan Service Center in Elmhurst, which runs a wide variety of programs. (ELA recognizes that the Chinese government's rule in Tibet, where this language is spoken, is disputed.)
Note that the language above may be used throughout the New York area — this is just one significant site.