Neighborhood

Queens Village

Queens
In the Census-defined PUMA including Queens Village, Cambria Heights & Rosedale, according to recent Census data, (in descending order) French/Haitian Creole (with 15,000), Panjabi, Hindi, "Niger-Congo Languages", Urdu, Gujarathi, Malayalam and Bengali each hold more than 1000 speakers. English, Spanish, Chinese, and Tagalog varieties are widely spoken in the area as well.
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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.

Haitian Creole

Kreyol Ayisyen
Haiti experienced despotic rule and economic despair in the latter half of the 20th century, leading tens of thousands of Haitians to move to the United States. New York became home to the densest concentration of Haitians outside Haiti, a heterogenous mix including educated elites, members of the middle class, and poorer communities forced to sail to Florida before heading northbound. Originally on the Upper West Side and in Harlem, the Haitian epicenter of the city can now be found between Flatbush and Canarsie: Haitian grocery stores, restaurants, churches, barber shops, and bars line Nostrand, Flatbush and Church Avenues. Communities have also grown up in a large area of eastern Queens and elsewhere throughout the five boroughs and the surrounding region in places like Spring Valley. In addition to the estimated 106,000 Haitian Creole speakers in New York, 2015-2019 American Community Survey data estimates that 7,401 French speakers were born in Haiti, many of whom may speak Haitian Creole as well or prefer to refer to identify as French speakers.

Kannada

ಕನ್ನಡ
Kannada is the official language southern India's Karnataka state. A community member claims that one of the first Kannada speakers arrived in New York in 1960, and the number has since grown in Queens neighborhoods like Lefrak City, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Flushing, Woodside, Jamaica, and Forest Hills. Many speakers also live on Long Island, spread out through Nassau (and to some extent Suffolk) county. Though census data shows 622 Kannada speakers in the city, locals estimate that the population is well into the thousands. Like many South Indian communities, Kannada people (also known as "Kannadigas") worship at Flushing's Hindu Temple Society. Ever since they first organized a Ganesh Pooja festival in 1971, the Kannada Koota ("assembly") has also served as a focal point of Kannada culture in New York, before which Kannada people resorted to Tamil-organized events. The koota focuses specifically on Kannada language maintenance and practice for younger generations.

Malayalam

മലയാളം
A community leader at the Kerala Cultural Association of North America estimates that nearly 100,000 Malayalam-speaking Keralites from Kerala in South India live in the New York metropolitan area and Long Island. This number increases significantly each year as Malayali people sponsor family members to relocate to the US. In the city, Malayali live in all boroughs, though predominantly in eastern Queens, with Long Island's New Hyde Park, just beyond the Queens border, an important residential hub for the community. Many are medical professionals, with roughly 80% of Malayali women in New York working as nurses, according to one community member, and some communities forming near hospitals. Most Malayali in New York are Christian, congregating at churches like Williamsbridge's St. Thomas Syro Malabar and Manor Heights' Mar Gregorios Orthodox Church, and much of the community also unites annually for Onam, a harvest festival specific to the Kerala state celebrated in late August and early September.

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.

Saramaccan Creole

Saamáka
Saramaccan Creole is a hybrid language spoken largely by the descendants of enslaved Africans living along the Suriname River, of whom at least a few have since come to the New York area. Though the majority of words are derived from English, there is a significant Portuguese-derived component as well as a large number of words from Niger-Congo languages of West Africa, including Fongbe and Kikongo. "A Grammar of Saramaccan Creole" by the linguists John McWhorter and Jeff Good drew partly on information supplied by Queens-based speakers.

Sinhalese

සිංහල
New York is home to the largest Sri Lankan community outside of Sri Lanka, concentrated in Staten Island's Tompkinsville neighborhood, with long-standing cultural institutions and acclaimed restaurants like Lakruwana and New Asha, as well as a community in and around Queens Village and one in New Jersey. Much of Sri Lanka's diversity is represented here, including not just the majority Sinhalese, but also Sri Lankan Tamils (who speak a distinct variety of that South Indian language), Sri Lankan Catholics (who have had Sinhalese mass at St. Adalbert's Church), and even a few Sri Lankan Malay speakers. The first groups of Sri Lankans started arriving in the United States in the 1950s, but it wasn't until the 1990s, during the Civil War that lasted until 2009, that large numbers of Sinhalese began arriving. All groups may also use a distinctive Sri Lankan English as a lingua franca.

Sri Lankan Tamil

இலங்கைத் தமிழ்
New York is home to the largest Sri Lankan community outside of Sri Lanka, concentrated in Staten Island's Tompkinsville neighborhood, with long-standing cultural institutions and acclaimed restaurants like Lakruwana and New Asha, as well as a community in and around Queens Village and one in New Jersey. Much of Sri Lanka's diversity is represented here, including not just the majority Sinhalese, but also Sri Lankan Tamils (who speak a distinct variety of that South Indian language), Sri Lankan Catholics (who have had Sinhalese mass at St. Adalbert's Church), and even a few Sri Lankan Malay speakers. The first groups of Sri Lankans started arriving in the United States in the 1950s, but it wasn't until the 1990s, during the Civil War that lasted until 2009, that large numbers of Sinhalese began arriving. All groups may also use a distinctive Sri Lankan English as a lingua franca.
Additional languages spoken in this neighborhood:
  • Barbadian Creole
  • Bengali
  • Guyanese Creole
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