Neighborhood

Belmont

Bronx
In the Census-defined PUMA including Belmont, Crotona Park East & East Tremont, according to recent Census data, (in descending order) "Niger-Congo languages", French, Mande, and Fulani are recorded as having over 1000 speakers. Varieties of English and Spanish are widely spoken.
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Languages with a significant site in this neighborhood, marked by a point on the map:

Balkan Romani

Xoraxane
The Bronx's Macedonian Roma community, several hundred families strong, grew from early migrants in the 1960s and speaks a distinctly Macedonian/Balkan variety of the Romani language distinct from those spoken by other Roma communities in the city, though there is a shift underway to Macedonian and English. The Macedonian Roma community is Muslim and worships at the Musa Mosque on 189th Street, in close proximity to Albanian, Italian, and Mexican communities in the Arthur Avenue area.

Basaa

Basaa
The city's Cameroonian community is relatively small, with most people in and around the East Tremont section of the Bronx and a few in Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey. However, given the country's linguistic diversity, there are a number of associations for speakers of different Cameroonian languages, including Basaa, Ewondo, Fe'fe, Ghomala, Limbum, Medumba, and Shupamem, each of which may have up to a few hundred speakers in the city. There are also speakers of Duala, Bafut, and Lamnso. Most have reportedly shifted to French or English, beginning in Cameroon's major cities, and to some extent there may be use of the local English and French varieties, Kamtok and Camfranglais.

Calabrese

Calabrese
While 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.

Ewondo

Ewondo
The city's Cameroonian community is relatively small, with most people in and around the East Tremont section of the Bronx and a few in Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey. However, given the country's linguistic diversity, there are a number of associations for speakers of different Cameroonian languages, including Basaa, Ewondo, Fe'fe, Ghomala, Limbum, Medumba, and Shupamem, each of which may have up to a few hundred speakers in the city. There are also speakers of Duala, Bafut, and Lamnso. Most have reportedly shifted to French or English, beginning in Cameroon's major cities, and to some extent there may be use of the local English and French varieties, Kamtok and Camfranglais.

Geg Albanian

Shqip (Gegë)
Northern Geg varieties of Albanian are particularly common in the historically Italian Arthur Avenue and Pelham Parkway sections of the Bronx (where many Kosovar Albanians settled beginning in the 1960s and 70s); in Astoria, Ridgewood, and other areas of Queens (where many have roots in southern Montenegro); and increasingly in areas of Staten Island. Many came as refugees from the former Yugoslavia, followed by others during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the ensuing wars. Waterbury, Connecticut is also home to a substantial community, including many Geg speakers from Struga, North Macedonia.

Italian

Italiano
Calabrians, Campanians, and Sicilians involved with constructing streets, railways, and Croton Reservoir settled in the Bronx were among the earliest Italians in the Bronx in the late 19th century. Today there remain substantial communities not only in the famous Arthur Avenue area in Tremont, but also in Morris Park and in neighborhoods to the east such as Throggs Neck and Country Club—not to mention further north in Westchester.

Macedonian

Македонски
Seeking refuge from the Ottoman Empire, a substantial number of Macedonians first arrived in the U.S. in the early 1900s, with many finding jobs in factories. In the 1960s, another wave of Macedonians arrived, leaving what was then Yugoslavia. Today a large number of Macedonian Americans live in northern New Jersey, while a smaller community exists in College Point, Queens, centered around the St. Clemens of Orhid Orthodox Church. The Macedonian Arts Council in Lower Manhattan is another focal point. There are also many speakers with the Balkan Roma community based in the Bronx (from Macedonia), who worship at the Musa Mosque.

Medumba

Medumba
The city's Cameroonian community is relatively small, with most people in and around the East Tremont section of the Bronx and a few in Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey. However, given the country's linguistic diversity, there are a number of associations for speakers of different Cameroonian languages, including Basaa, Ewondo, Fe'fe, Ghomala, Limbum, Medumba, and Shupamem, each of which may have up to a few hundred speakers in the city. There are also speakers of Duala, Bafut, and Lamnso. Most have reportedly shifted to French or English, beginning in Cameroon's major cities, and to some extent there may be use of the local English and French varieties, Kamtok and Camfranglais.

Pugliese (Garganico)

Garganico
Pugliese is an umbrella term for a number of very different varieties from the southern Italian region of Puglia (or Apulia). Many communities from across the region have taken root and formed clubs in New York, especially from in and around the city of Bari, including groups from Bitetto and Conversano. Early on, Barese speakers had a strong presence first in coal and later ice delivery. Across much of southern Brooklyn, a long-established community from Mola di Bari maintains several clubs and speaks a variety broadly similar to the Casamassimese maintained by a family in Jersey City, and the Molfettese known to many in Hoboken. Writer Annie Rachele Lanzillot has written of growing up in the Bronx hearing her family's Acquavivese dialect. Noted poet Joseph Tusiani, long resident in New York, spoke and wrote in the Garganico variety from the area around San Marco in Lamis. Others may have roots in and around Foggia, with its distinct variety.

Sicilian

Sicilianu
New York City has been a major center for the Sicilian language since the late 19th century, when it was the principal language spoken by many of the millions of Italian immigrants arriving in the United States. Sicilian speakers are present, especially the older generation, in all the major Italian neighborhoods of the city (Ridgewood, Bensonhurst, Bay Ridge, much of Staten Island etc.) as well in the suburbs of Long Island, Westchester, and New Jersey — and the city even boasts a vibrant Sicilian-language poetry scene. Sicilian social clubs with roots in particular towns still abound, from the century-old Società Concordia Partanna in Ridgewood to the Society of the Citizens of Pozzallo in Carroll Gardens, the Castellammare del Golfo Social Club USA in Bensonhurst, and the broader Sicilian Citizens' Club in Bayonne, New Jersey. Read more here.

Tosk Albanian

Shqip (Tosk)
Speakers of Tosk Albanian varieties, from southern areas of the Albanian-speaking world including Albania's capital city Tirana, often live near Gegs but also have a significant concentration in Brooklyn neighborhoods from Flatbush to Bensonhurst and in New Jersey. As with Geg Albanian speakers, they are often proficient in Italian for historical reasons and have settled in New York neighborhoods with high concentrations of ethnic Italians. Many likewise came during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the wars that followed, but a smaller group, primarily Christian, came in the first half of the 20th century.
Additional languages spoken in this neighborhood:
  • Arbëresh
  • Bulgarian
  • Neapolitan
  • Otomi
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