Neighborhood

Kensington

Brooklyn
In the Census-defined PUMA including Borough Park, Kensington & Ocean Parkway, according to recent Census data, (in descending order), Yiddish, Bengali, Russian, and Hebrew each have more than 5000 speakers. Varieties of English, Spanish, and Chinese are commonly spoken in the area as well.
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Azeri

Azərbaycanca
The first wave of Azeri-Americans came during and following the Second World War, with many having been prisoners of war. New York City has been the main destination, especially southern Brooklyn (home to the Azerbaijan Association of NY and restaurants like Old Baku), as well as parts of New Jersey including Newark (home to the Azerbaijan Society of America). There are 4,709 Azerbaijan-born Americans in NYC, according to 2015-2019 American Community Survey data, although many likely speak Russian or Juhuri, the language of the large Jewish community in Azerbaijan and Daghestan now also in Brooklyn. In addition to North Azeri speakers from Azerbaijan, there are also likely to be Iranian (South) Azeri speakers.

Balochi

بلوچی
There are at least a few confirmed speakers of Balochi from Pakistan in the New York area and likely others, but as yet no clear reports of an organized community. More may live in Washington D.C. and Seattle.

Bengali

বাংলা
Moving beyond Manhattan and Queens, Bengali-speaking neighborhoods have developed across the metropolitan area. Church Avenue in Brooklyn's Kensington is a major hub where Bangladeshis from a variety of backgrounds come together, not far from the major Pakistani hub on Coney Island Avenue. The Bengali-speaking community in and around Parkchester in the Bronx has also grown and expanded in recent years. In Paterson, New Jersey, a stretch of Union Avenue between Sheridan and Wayne was recently officially named "Bangladesh Boulevard".

Bukhori

בוכארי
The Bukharian community in Brooklyn, while much smaller than the one in Queens, is a presence among the many and diverse Jewish communties of central Brooklyn, clustered around Ocean Parkway. Ve Emunah is one religious hub for the community, located within an older Ashkenazi synagogue.

Chittagonian

চাটগাঁইয়া
Sometimes considered varieties of Bengali, to which they are related but not always mutually intelligible, Rangpuri, Chittagonian, Noakhailla (and closely related Sandwippa) are all significant language varieties of Bangladesh spoken in their respective regions. While Bengali may be used as a lingua franca with other Bangladeshis, many speakers may use these at home or within their own communities, represented by organizations such as the Rangpur Zilla in Ozone Park, and the Chittagong Association, Sandwip Association, and Greater Noakhali Association (all in Brooklyn).

Juhuri

Горско-еврейский
Until recent decades, Juhuri speakers were concentrated primarily in the towns and villages on the eastern slopes of the Caucasus mountains. Today, with a global population estimated between 100-200,000, they live primarily in Israel and the U.S., although thousands remain in Dagestan and Azerbaijan. Probably several thousand strong, the Juhuri-speaking community in New York is centered in central Brooklyn around the Kavkazi Jewish Congregation (Or HaMizrekh) on Ocean Parkway. The Lezginka Dance Company, based in Brooklyn, preserves and continues community dance traditions through teaching and performance. The Juhuri (or Judeo-Tat) language is still spoken by many middle-aged and older people, who were born in the Caucasus, and is maintained in some families and some spheres of daily life, but many have switched to Russian or English, and many of the older generation also speak Azeri. Read more here.

Myene

Omyene
At least one Myene-speaking individual was living in Brooklyn as of 2017.

Noakhailla

নোয়াখালী
Sometimes considered varieties of Bengali, to which they are related but not always mutually intelligible, Rangpuri, Chittagonian, Noakhailla (and closely related Sandwippa) are all significant language varieties of Bangladesh spoken in their respective regions. While Bengali may be used as a lingua franca with other Bangladeshis, many speakers may use these at home or within their own communities, represented by organizations such as the Rangpur Zilla in Ozone Park, and the Chittagong Association, Sandwip Association, and Greater Noakhali Association (all in Brooklyn).

Nubian

لغات نوبية‎
A substantial Nubian diaspora has existed and grown especially since the flooding of the Nubian homeland as a result of the construction of the new Aswan Dam in the 1960s. At least a small number of Sudanese Nubians have been reported as living in this area of Brooklyn, and there may be Egyptian Nubians as well — "Nubian" refers to a grouping of related but distinctive languages."

Sandwippa

সন্দ্বীপ্পা
Sometimes considered varieties of Bengali, to which they are related but not always mutually intelligible, Rangpuri, Chittagonian, Noakhailla (and closely related Sandwippa) are all significant language varieties of Bangladesh spoken in their respective regions. While Bengali may be used as a lingua franca with other Bangladeshis, many speakers may use these at home or within their own communities, represented by organizations such as the Rangpur Zilla in Ozone Park, and the Chittagong Association, Sandwip Association, and Greater Noakhali Association (all in Brooklyn).

Sylheti

ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠤ
Among the first wave of Bengali speakers who made their way to New York—many of them ex-seamen who settled on the Lower East Side and in East Harlem, as told by Vivek Bald in Bengali Harlem—were many who also spoke Sylheti, the related language variety from Sylhet in what is now northeastern Bangladesh. A distinct Sylheti community remains in those neighborhoods today, exemplified by the East Village's Madina Masjid and the small restaurant row on East 6th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues, which began in the 1970s. Other small Sylheti communities continue in Harlem and parts of Brooklyn, and in general Sylhetis constitute a significant portion of the sizeable Bangladeshi community in the New York metro area, with communities apparently existing in most areas with other Bengali speakers.

Yoruba

Èdè Yorùbá
Representing what may be the largest Nigerian community, a range of speakers of different Yoruba varieties live across the metropolitan area, with significant concentrations in a stretch of Brooklyn across Bed-Stuy, Flatbush, and East New York, in southeast Queens, in the Bronx, and in Staten Island. Yoruba-language churches, often Pentecostal, are significant hubs, with some like CAC in Brooklyn having served the community for decades, as are Nigerian markets. A distinct form of Yoruba spread across the Black Atlantic to become Lukumí, a liturgical language of Santeria also widely used across the city.
Additional languages spoken in this neighborhood:
  • Pakistani English
  • Punjabi
  • Sudanese Arabic
  • Urdu
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