Languages of New York City Map

Site Details

温州话

Wenzhounese

Census

Community Profile: Most Chinese speakers in the city, from the first half of the 19th century until the second half of the 20th, spoke southern Chinese varieties, notably forms of Taishanese and Cantonese, but significant numbers of speakers of northern Chinese varieties, including official Mandarin, began arriving especially after the Second World War. Many were from Taiwan and established a community in and around Flushing, where other Chinese immigrants from all over gradually joined them. Today, with the largest Chinese population outside of Asia, the city is home to an extraordinary variety of Sinitic (Chinese) languages even beyond the most widely spoken (Mandarin, Cantonese, Fujianese, Taishanese, Wenzhounese, Hakka). Some represent distinct but related varieties of these (e.g. Northern Fujianese, Taiwanese, Teochew, and Hainanese are all part of the Min group, with the Fuzhou variety of Fujianese by far the most common in New York) but others are highly distinct. Reports about other smaller Chinese languages communities in the city are scarce, but within the Mandarin subgroup there seem to be substantial numbers of speakers of Northeastern Mandarin and Sichuanese, and within the Wu subgroup substantial numbers of speakers of Shanghainese and Changzhounese. There are an unknown number of speakers of Gan (Jiangxi) and Xiang (Hunan) and probably many other varieties, likely not living as distinct communities, but within a larger Chinese matrix where Mandarin (as in China itself) is increasingly the lingua franca and valorized standard.

he area in and around Wenzhou, in China's Zhejiang Province, is home to a highly distinctive Wu language (a branch of Chinese) that today is spoken all over the world, with large concentrations in France, Italy, and the U.S., especially New York City, where there are at least tens of thousands originally from the city of Wenzhou and neighboring Qingtian county. The Wenzhounese community is known for entrepreneurship, and there are a large number of Wenzhounese-owned businesses (restaurants, groceries, clothing factories etc.) across New York's many Chinese-speaking neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. The densest concentration of Wenzhounese speakers is thought to be in Queens neighborhoods like Flushing and Whitestone, where there are gatherings of the Chinese Wen Chow Association (温州同乡会) and Wenzhounese-language church services, although a strong shift to Mandarin among the younger generation is underway both in Wenzhou and in diaspora centers like New York.

Note that the language above may be used throughout the New York area — this is just one significant site.

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