Neighborhood

Chelsea

Manhattan
In the Census-defined PUMA including Chelsea, Clinton & Midtown Business District, according to recent Census data, (in descending order) French, Mandarin, and Cantonese each have at least 1500 speakers. English, Spanish, and Korean varieties are widely spoken in the area as well.
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Languages with a significant site in this neighborhood, marked by a point on the map:

Franco-Provençal

Patois
Numerous speakers of Franco-Provençal varieties have lived in New York over the years—recent individuals known to ELA include one from Aymavilles (Aosta) living in the East Village and a self-described speaker of Arpitan in Harlem. This spot in Chelsea marks the former home of the Valdôtaine (Val D'Aosta) Mutual Aid Society of New York, and 112‐13 Roosevelt Avenue in Corona (Queens) was once home to Jeantet's Restaurant, an important gathering place for the community.

French

Français
French has a long and complex history in New York, beginning with Huguenot refugees who played an important role in the city's early history and continuing with an influx of French immigrants in the 19th century who founded institutions in Chelsea and points north, as well as French Canadians whose national parish church until 1957 was St. Jean Baptiste in Lenox Hill. In the last decades of the 20th century, large numbers of speakers of French varieties arrived in the city from the Caribbean (especially from Haiti, where most speak the related Haitian Creole, but others prefer Standard French) as well as from West Africa, where French is an important lingua franca. Increasing numbers of French speakers from France and Canada have arrived in the city as well. A newer expat community is centered in part on the large French-American School in Larchmont.

Greek

Ελληνικά
Back in the 1910s, '20s, and '30s, a section of 8th Avenue in today's Chelsea was home to renowned nightclubs where Armenian, Greek, and Turkish musicians would perform, record, and develop a music that owed much to the cosmopolitanism of the late Ottoman Empire, which those performers had fled.

Lithuanian

Lietuvių
Driven by a famine and a series of insurrections, Lithuanian immigration to the U.S. began in 1850, with as many as 750,000 said to have arrived by 1918. While the largest community is in Chicago, there is a substantial and historic community in New York City which lived in proximity to Slavic communities, united by churches like the Annunciation in Williamsburg and the Transfiguration Roman Catholic Church in Maspeth, Queens, both with frequent services in Lithuanian. One affiliate of the church is the Knights of Lithuania organization, whose primary goals are to celebrate Lithuanian language, customs, and culture. Most Lithuanian Jews were native Yiddish speakers and settled among Jews. Lithuanian ("Lipka") Tatars have also been in New York for over a century, with a Williamsburg mosque still in the community.

Malagasy

Malagasy
As reported in 2016, a handful of Malagasy musicians founded NY Valiha, a sometime speakeasy and concert venue in Corona, named for the bamboo zither instrument native to Madagascar. Malagasy-language church services are offered by the Iangonana Kristianina Malagasy New York (Malagasy Christian Church of New York). Immigration from Madagascar to the U.S. is unusual, as few Malagasy speak English, and most go to nearby French-speaking islands in the Indian Ocean, Canada, or France itself. Performances at NY Valiha reportedly fuse traditional Malagasy folk music and contemporary indie rock. A Malagasy church was reported in Chelsea.

Nones

Nones
Nones is spoken in Val di Non, a valley north of Trento in the Dolomite mountains in the far north of Italy. Many Nonesi who came to New York in the early 20th century considered themselves "Tyroleans" or "Austrians" more than Italians and remained to some degree separately from other Italian communities. Many men worked in construction, including on the Verrazzano Bridge, with some women working in the knitting mills. As described by speaker Giovanna Flaim, many Nonesi families lived initially in what is today Chelsea before forming communities of perhaps a few dozen families each in South Brooklyn, Williamsburg (near North 6th Street and Union Avenue), and later Ridgewood (where Club Trentino continues to this day) and nearby areas in southwestern Queens. However, most speakers raised their children in either standard Italian or English or both of those languages, although older speakers remain, primarily from the immigrant generation, and some semi-speakers. Read more here.

Turkish

Türkçe
Back in the 1910s, '20s, and '30s, a section of 8th Avenue in today's Chelsea was home to renowned nightclubs where Armenian, Greek, and Turkish musicians would perform, record, and develop a music that owed much to the cosmopolitanism of the late Ottoman Empire, which those performers had fled.

Western Armenian

Արեւմտահայերէն
Back in the 1910s, '20s, and '30s, a section of 8th Avenue in today's Chelsea was home to renowned nightclubs where Armenian, Greek, and Turkish musicians would perform, record, and develop a music that owed much to the cosmopolitanism of the late Ottoman Empire, which those performers had fled.
Additional languages spoken in this neighborhood:
  • Croatian
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Chelsea

Manhattan

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AbakuáAbakuá

Caribbean

  • Cuba flag
    Cuba
Lower East Side

Smallest

Liturgical
AbazaАбаза

Western Asia

  • Turkey flag
    Turkey
  • Russia flag
    Russia
49,800
Abkhaz-Adyge
Wayne (NJ)

Smallest

Residential
Abruzzese (Orsognese)Abruzzésë

Southern Europe

  • Italy flag
    Italy
Indo-European
Astoria

Small

Residential
Abruzzese (Orsognese)Abruzzésë

Southern Europe

  • Italy flag
    Italy
Indo-European
Little Italy

Small

Historical
AcehneseBahsa Acèh

Southeastern Asia

  • Indonesia flag
    Indonesia
3,500,000
Austronesian
Astoria

Smallest

Community
AcehneseBahsa Acèh

Southeastern Asia

  • Indonesia flag
    Indonesia
3,500,000
Austronesian
Elmhurst

Smallest

Residential
AdjoukrouMɔjukru

Western Africa

  • Ivory Coast flag
    Ivory Coast
140,000
Atlantic-Congo
Concourse

Smallest

Residential
AdygheК|ахыбзэ

Western Asia

  • Turkey flag
    Turkey
  • Russia flag
    Russia
117,500
Abkhaz-Adyge
Wayne (NJ)

Small

Residential
AfenmaiAfenmai

Western Africa

  • Nigeria flag
    Nigeria
270,000
Atlantic-Congo
Castle Hill

Smallest

Residential
African-American EnglishBlack English

Northern America

  • United States flag
    United States
45,109,521
Indo-European
Bedford-Stuyvesant

Largest

Residential
African-American EnglishBlack English

Northern America

  • United States flag
    United States
45,109,521
Indo-European
Newark (NJ)

Largest

Residential
African-American EnglishBlack English

Northern America

  • United States flag
    United States
45,109,521
Indo-European
Clifton

Largest

Residential
African-American EnglishBlack English

Northern America

  • United States flag
    United States
45,109,521
Indo-European
Hollis

Largest

Residential
African-American EnglishBlack English

Northern America

  • United States flag
    United States
45,109,521
Indo-European
Edenwald

Largest

Residential
African-American EnglishBlack English

Northern America

  • United States flag
    United States
45,109,521
Indo-European
Central Harlem

Largest

Residential
African-American EnglishBlack English

Northern America

  • United States flag
    United States
45,109,521
Indo-European
Hempstead (NY)

Large

Residential
AfrikaansAfrikaans

Southern Africa

  • South Africa flag
    South Africa
  • Zimbabwe flag
    Zimbabwe
17,543,580
Indo-European
Murray Hill

Small

Community
AkanAkan

Western Africa

  • Ghana flag
    Ghana
9,231,300
Atlantic-Congo
Flatbush

Small

Residential
AkanAkan

Western Africa

  • Ghana flag
    Ghana
9,231,300
Atlantic-Congo
Shore Acres

Small

Residential
AkanAkan

Western Africa

  • Ghana flag
    Ghana
9,231,300
Atlantic-Congo
University Heights

Large

Residential

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