Neighborhood

East New York

Brooklyn
In the Census-defined PUMA including East New York & Starrett City, according to recent Census data, Bengali, Russian, Haitian Creole and French each have more than 1000 speakers. Varieties of English and Spanish are commonly spoken in the area as well.
De-select
Languages with a significant site in this neighborhood, marked by a point on the map:

Baoulé

Baoulé
According to one of its leaders, a community of speakers of multiple varieties of Bété, a language of Ivory Coast, has formed in recent years, with some individuals living in East New York and gathering at a Baptist church in Harlem, joined as well by speakers of other Ivorian languages including Baoulé, Ebrié, and Guro.

Bété

Bété
According to one of its leaders, a community of speakers of multiple varieties of Bété, a language of Ivory Coast, has formed in recent years, with some individuals living in East New York and gathering at a Baptist church in Harlem, joined as well by speakers of other Ivorian languages including Baoulé, Ebrié, and Guro.

Church Slavonic

црькъвьнословѣньскъ
This Russian Orthodox church was originally built by East New York's Belarusian community but has since revived by a more recent wave of Russian speakers in Brooklyn who are returning to the religion.

Dyula

(ߖߎ߬ߟߊ߬ߞߊ߲ (ߒߞߏ
Dyula has long been an important lingua franca known to many in Ivory Coast, and many Ivorian New Yorkers who have been involved in trade or spent significant time in Abidjan know the language. Dyula speakers may be found at mosques frequented by Ivorians in Harlem and the Bronx, as well as in a small Ivorian community in East New York.

Esan

Ishan
New York's Nigerian population started growing in the 1970s and 80s, accelerating since 2000 in part thanks to the Diversity Visa program. Nigerians from a wide variety of backgrounds—though a significant percentage are middle-class and highly educated— now make up a large percentage of the city's massive West African community, particularly in East New York, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Flatbush, Clifton, and Concourse. Numerous evangelical churches now serve Christian Nigerian New Yorkers, and there are a number of restaurants, markets, and other businesses for the wider community. Community and hometown organizations also represent those with ties to particular Nigerian states like Edo and Akwa Ibom. The multilingualism of Nigerian New Yorkers testifies to the country's extraordinary linguistic diversity, though Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, and Edo varieties appear to be the most common, with Nigerian English sometimes a lingua franca. Smaller language groups are also present, including some with substantial and well-organized communities: Afenmai, Anaang, Edo, Efik, Esan, Ibibio, Kalabari, Tiv, Urhobo, and likely others.

Igbo

Asụsụ Igbo
Igbo speakers, representing one of the largest Nigerian communities in New York, live in a range of neighborhoods, with significant concentrations in every borough and Igbo-run businesses and churches becoming increasingly common. Based in St. Albans, Queens, the Igbo Organization New York sees well over 500 families at events throughout the year, and with an average of 7 or 8 people per family, the group estimates that New York City's Igbo population is at least 4,000, if not more. The community has worked to declare the first Saturday in July Igbo day. In response to families' concern that younger generations are not speaking Igbo, the Igbo Organization has started hosting summer language classes. A substantial community also exists in and around Newark.

Maninka

(ߡߊߣߌ߲ߞߊߞߊ߲ (ߒߞߏ
The Mande language family comprises dozens of related languages spoken by tens of millions of people across West Africa. The most widely spoken Mande languages in New York belong to a subgroup called Manding, originally connected to the Mali empire which lasted until the 17th century and today forming a language and dialect continuum from Senegal to Burkina Faso. Among the most widely spoken Manding languages both in West Africa and New York are Bambara (Mali), Dyula (Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso), Maninka (Guinea), and Mandinka (Gambia), which are substantially mutually intelligible. In fact, those who use the N'ko alphabet may refer to these varieties collectively as N'ko (which roughly translates to "I say" in all these varieties). New York today is home to over 12,000 "Mande" speakers according to (the likely very low figure in the) 2015-2019 American Community Survey data, with speakers often living near each other in parts of Harlem and the central Bronx.

Nigerian English

Pidgin
New York's Nigerian population started growing in the 1970s and 80s, accelerating since 2000 in part thanks to the Diversity Visa program. Nigerians from a wide variety of backgrounds—though a significant percentage are middle-class and highly educated— now make up a large percentage of the city's massive West African community, particularly in East New York, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Flatbush, Clifton, and Concourse. Numerous evangelical churches now serve Christian Nigerian New Yorkers, and there are a number of restaurants, markets, and other businesses for the wider community. Community and hometown organizations also represent those with ties to particular Nigerian states like Edo and Akwa Ibom. The multilingualism of Nigerian New Yorkers testifies to the country's extraordinary linguistic diversity, though Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, and Edo varieties appear to be the most common, with Nigerian English sometimes a lingua franca. Smaller language groups are also present, including some with substantial and well-organized communities: Afenmai, Anaang, Edo, Efik, Esan, Ibibio, Kalabari, Tiv, Urhobo, and likely others.
Additional languages spoken in this neighborhood:
  • African-American English
  • Barbadian Creole
  • Central American Spanish
  • Guyanese Creole
  • Hausa
  • Judeo-Spanish
  • Mixtec
  • Sylheti
  • Tobagonian Creole
  • Trinidadian Creole
  • Yiddish
  • Yoruba
SearchExploreDataCensusInfo

Loading...

Data

Search
Local community data
View in map
County
Language
Endonym
World Region
Country
Global Speakers
Language Family
Video
Audio
Location
Size
Status
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
​
​
No communities found. Try fewer criteria or click the "Clear filters" button to reset the table.

Rows per page:

20 rows

0-0 of 0

0-0 of 0
Press space bar to start a drag. When dragging you can use the arrow keys to move the item around and escape to cancel. Some screen readers may require you to be in focus mode or to use your pass through key

An urban language map

Welcome to Languages of New York City, a free and interactive digital map of the world’s most linguistically diverse metropolitan area.

All data, unless otherwise specified, is from the Endangered Language Alliance (ELA), based on information from communities, speakers, and other sources.

The map is a work in progress and a partial snapshot, focused on significant sites for Indigenous, minority, and endangered languages. Larger languages are represented selectively. To protect the privacy of speakers, some locations are slightly altered. Social media users, note that LANGUAGEMAP.NYC works best in a separate browser. We apologize that the map may not be fully accessible to all users, including the visually impaired.

This map was created by the Mapping Linguistic Diversity team, with core support from the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies and the Endangered Language Alliance. Please send feedback!

By continuing I acknowledge that I have read and accept the above information.