Neighborhood

Elm Park

Staten Island
In descending order, Urdu, Albanian, Russian, Polish, "Niger-Congo languages", Sinhalese, Italian, French, Cantonese are among the most widely spoken languages across the north shore of Staten Island, with at least 1000 speakers each, according to recent Census data. Varieties of English, Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic are also widely spoken. ELA data shows no significant sites for smaller language communities in this neighborhood.
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Languages with a significant site in this neighborhood, marked by a point on the map:

Chinantec

Tsa Jujmi
While not as numerous in New York as some other Indigenous Mexican groups, there have been reports of individual speakers of Chinantec — or of Chinantecan languages, because the group is highly internally diverse — living in Mexican areas within the city.

Mexican Spanish

Español Mexicano
NYC's Mexican population tripled in the 1990s, with the largest numbers arriving from Puebla and later Guerrero, south-central states with large Indigenous communities, though today there are more from the Mexico City area and the entire country. One informal survey found that up to 17 percent of Mexican New Yorkers may speak an Indigenous language, with Mixtec and Nahuatl varieties the most widely spoken, possibly by tens of thousands—some of whom learn Spanish in New York. Mexicans have largely settled throughout the metro area, usually in Spanish-speaking neighborhoods first settled by Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, but there are signs now of distinctly Mexican areas and a host of institutions created by the community.

Mixtec

Tu'un Savi
At least two distinct communities from the Mixtec pueblos of San Jerónimo Xayacatlán (Puebla) and San Marcos Natividad (Oaxaca)—speaking very different varieties—have formed in Staten Island, where hundreds live in and around the Port Richmond area.

Nahuatl

Nahuatl
Within the diverse Mexican community on the north shore, centered on Port Richmond, are believed to be an unknown number of Nahuatl speakers.

Pali

पालि
Pali, the language in which many canonical Buddhist texts were written, is a liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism, which is widely practiced across Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Though the language fell out of everyday use in the 1st century BCE, Pali is still read and used by Theravada Buddhist communities worldwide, including those based in New York. The Sri Lankan community's viharas (Buddhist monasteries), including in Queens and Staten Island, house ancient Pali scripture, as do Thai, Burmese, and Cambodian wats in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and outside the city.

Papantla Totonac

Totonako
The term Totonac refers to a cluster of approximately nine closely related Indigenous languages spoken by an estimated 280,000 people in the Mexican states of Veracruz and Puebla. The Endangered Language Alliance has been working for several years with Sierra Totonac speaker and curandero José Juárez, originally from the city of Tuxtla in Puebla and now living and running his store Leecatzin in Clifton, New Jersey. There are also speakers of Papantla Totonac in the city. Read more here.

Zapotec

Diidxazá
The Indigenous Zapotec community in and around Los Angeles is larger than the one in and around New York, but there are speakers of Zapotecan languages (a diverse group from Oaxaca in Mexico) living in and around Latino areas of New York and New Jersey. Important clusters include former residents of San Sebastián Teitipac now in the Bronx, who have been hoping to pass on their language with a dedicated school; a community in Corona, Queens from San Pablo Güilá, which has a distinctive variety of the language; a community from San Agustín Yatareni in Poughkeepsie; and farmworkers in and around Bridgeton in southern New Jersey.
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Language
Endonym
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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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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.

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