Neighborhood

Ridgewood

Queens
In the Census-defined PUMA including Ridgewood, Glendale & Midlde Village, according to recent Census data, (in descending order) Polish (with over 15,000), Italian, Albanian, Romanian, German, Cantonese, and Russian each have more than 1000 speakers. English and Spanish 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:

Aromanian

Vlach
Aromanians, sometimes also known as Vlachs (or historically as Macedo-Romanians), are speakers of Eastern Romance language varieties living across the Balkan peninsula from Romania to Greece. They identify variously, including some as descending from ancient Macedonians or Romans, and others as part of different national groups. By 1918, in the wake of the Ottoman Empire's collapse, Aromanians had became a marginalized minority within Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, and what became Yugoslavia. Significant numbers of Aromanians reached the U.S. between 1900 and 1920, with many settling in Manhattan and others in the Bronx (around 175th and Washington), and there was even a short-lived Aromanian newspaper in New York called Curierul Roman. Today, Society Farsarotul in Connecticut serves as one community institution. According to one community member, most Aromanians in the city now live dispersed among New York’s Albanian, Greek, and Romanian communities in western Queens.

Coptic

ϯⲙⲉⲧⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ
Coptic, the last descendant of the Egyptian language of the pharaohs, serves as the liturgical language for Egyptian Christians who now speak Egyptian Arabic in daily life. Still spoken in daily life possibly through the 17th century, it lives on today across the metropolitan area at Coptic Orthodox churches in Jersey City, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and elsewhere.

Danube Swabian

Schwowisch
Danube Swabians in the United States originally came from diverse transnational region like the Batschka and Banat in what is now principally Hungary, Romania, and Serbia. The Germanic variety they speak, linked to Swabian in southwest Germany, bears traces of many other surrounding languages. Like many other ethnic Germans of Eastern Europe, they were caught up in the turmoil of the Second World War and went as refugees to Germany and Austria, from which a substantial number came to the diversely Germanic neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, much as the Gottscheers did. The neighborhood's Linden HIll Cemetery has a memorial monument to the "victims of expulsion, deprivation of rights, extermination, and deportation" from the community.

Ecuadorian Kichwa

Runasimi
A significant number of Kichwa speakers arrived as part of the larger migration from the largely Indigenous south-central highlands of Ecuador, particularly in the 1990s from the Azuay-Cañar region, but also via Quito, Cuenca, Otavalo, and Salasaca, among other places. In New York, they have settled near larger Ecuadorian and Latino communities in and around Corona (Queens), Ridgewood (Queens), Bushwick (Brooklyn), Parkchester (Bronx), and the suburb of Spring Valley. But there also appear to be distinctly Indigenous clusters related to town of origin, one example being the hundreds of Kisapincha families in and around Bushwick, of whom some have started moving to Canarsie due to rising rents. Community member and ELA collaborator Charlie Uruchima, who is also part of the Kichwa-language radio station Kichwa Hatari broadcasting from the Bronx, estimates that there may be as many as 8,000-10,000 speakers in the city.

Egyptian Arabic

مصرى
Egyptian Arabic speakers, including a substantial number of Coptic Christians fleeing sectarian violence in Egypt, have come to the metro area in recent decades. The "Little Egypt" on Steinway Street in Astoria is home to a range of institutions and now includes many other North African New Yorkers, but there are also Egyptian clusters in Bay Ridge, Ridgewood, Jersey City (home to the Ghabour Brothers market), and in much of Staten Island.

German

Deutsch
Germanic Queens began in the mid-19th century with the model industrial towns established near Astoria (by the Steinways' famous piano manufacturing firm) and in College Point (by entreprenuer and philanthropist Conrad Poppenhausen, also a pioneer of kindergarten in the US). In the early 20th century, newer German communities followed the expansion of breweries and other industries east from the substantial communities in Williamsburg and Bushwick through Ridgewood, Glendale, and numerous other areas of southern Queens, where German cultural institutions today are fewer but nonetheless remain.

Gottscheerisch

Gottscheerisch
Gottscheerisch is a Germanic language variety that developed in the area of Gottschee in what is now Slovenia during a period of over seven centuries. Most speakers left the region amid the upheaval of the Second World War, and the language in Gottschee itself is now all but lost, following emigration to Germany, Austria, and the United States, particularly the Ridgewood area of Queens. One estimate places the population of Gottscheers and their descendants in the New York area as high as 18,000, though only a small number of older people still know the language to some extent. Though many Gottscheers have moved beyond Ridgewood elsewhere in Queens, Long Island, and beyond, Gottscheer Hall is a community center, restaurant, and bar all in one. An active community infrastructure includes choral concerts, Miss Gottschee competitions, the Blau Weiss soccer team, and the Gottscheer Relief Association, among other institutions.

Gurjar

گوجری‎
As of 2020, an individual speaker of Gurjar was living in Ridgewood. He came to New York with his parents, who were born in Shahada, Maharashtra in India, and was unaware of other speakers in the New York area.

Gurung

तमु क्यी
Gurung is an endangered Tibeto-Burman (Tamangic) language spoken in central Nepal by a reported 325,000 people, with additional speakers residing outside of Nepal’s borders. In New York, a community of several hundred Gurungs live in and around Jackson Heights, where the Gurung (Tamu) Society is also based. Others, like Endangered Language Alliance collaborator Narayan Gurung (a former Gurkha soldier, like some other Gurung New Yorkers) live in the Ridgewood area. Most members of this community no longer speak the Gurung language — which contains many distinct varieties based in different villages — but have switched to the national language, Nepali or, in America, English. Read more here.

Montenegrin

Црногорски
One sizeable cluster of Montenegrin New Yorkers gathers in Astoria at the Islamic Unity & Cultural Center of Plav-Gusinje, since many of hail from the Plav-Gusinje region. Ridgewood is also home to a community from Montenegro, with businesses such as Europa Market and Melinda's Halal Meats. A substantial number of New Yorkers from Montenegro are ethnic Albanians, with Geg Albanian as their primary language.

Nepali

नेपाली
Nepali in New York is spoken by a diverse range of individuals and communities not just from native Nepali-speaking Brahmin and Chhetri groups, but as a second (and increasingly first) language by significant numbers of ethnic minorities from Nepal's Himalayan north, middle hills, and southern reaches near India. There are also Nepali-speaking Lhotsampa refugees originally from Bhutan (primarily now resettled in the Bronx) and some Nepali speakers from India.

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.

Puerto Rican Spanish

Español Puertorriqueño
Puerto Ricans began moving to the mainland United States in significant numbers in the late 19th century, bringing with them their unique variety of Caribbean Spanish. The Great Migration following the Second World War brought tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans to the city each year, making Puerto Rican Spanish the dominant form of Spanish in New York for much of the 20th century in major barrios including East Harlem, the Lower East Side (sometimes called Loisaida), Williamsburg, Bushwick, and much of the Bronx. Proudly Nuyorican poets like Miguel Algarín and Tato Laviera, blending Puerto Rican and New York culture, forged a distinctive, poetic Spanglish. Today, Puerto Rican Spanish speakers live throughout the city, but an increasing number are moving to suburban areas of Westchester, New Jersey, and other states.

Romani

Romani
Numerous Roma communities have existed across Queens. Members of a Ludar Roma community (from Bosnia/Romania) associated with circus work reportedly built a small village in Maspeth from 1925 to 1939 before it was broken up. The fall of the Iron Curtain after 1989 brought new waves of Roma refugees — with communities and individuals from Romania settling across southern Queens, among other places — as well as a new impetus to scholarship, activism, and visibility.

Romanian

Română
Waves of Romanian immigrants, primarily Jewish Yiddish-speakers, began arriving in the U.S. in the 1880s, and the distinct Romanian quarter on the Lower East Side was bustling through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Romanian speakers mostly arrived in the second half of the 20th century and settled in Queens (Ridgewood, Sunnyside, Astoria), although some live in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and others attend the St. Dumitru Parish church on West 89th Street, founded in 1939. A significant number of Romanian speakers in Ridgewood are ethnic Romanians from the Banat region (now in Serbia) who fled Communist rule in the former Yugoslavia and who gather in Ridgewood at the Banatul "Folklore and Soccer Club", among other places. Numerous Romanian churches of different denominations dot Ridgewood, including the Orthodox Church at Forest and Putnam.

Sicilian

Sicilianu
New York City has been a major center for the Sicilian language since the late 19th century, when it was the principal language spoken by many of the millions of Italian immigrants arriving in the United States. Sicilian speakers are present, especially the older generation, in all the major Italian neighborhoods of the city (Ridgewood, Bensonhurst, Bay Ridge, much of Staten Island etc.) as well in the suburbs of Long Island, Westchester, and New Jersey — and the city even boasts a vibrant Sicilian-language poetry scene. Sicilian social clubs with roots in particular towns still abound, from the century-old Società Concordia Partanna in Ridgewood to the Society of the Citizens of Pozzallo in Carroll Gardens, the Castellammare del Golfo Social Club USA in Bensonhurst, and the broader Sicilian Citizens' Club in Bayonne, New Jersey. Read more here.

Slovenian

Slovenščina
Many of the Slovenians who first arrived in New York in the late 19th century came from the Domžale region and introduced their specialized straw-hat making trade to America. Originally settling in the East Village with many other Eastern and Central European groups, Slovenians since 1916 have made the Church of St. Syril on St. Mark's Place an important community center, offering Slovenian language classes and serving as a hub for other community groups and activities. Many Slovenian speakers, including a later wave following the Second World War, settled elsewhere in the city, especially Brooklyn, and beyond (including the Bridgeport-Fairfield area in Connecticut). There were some who spoke in the lanugage in the distinctive community of Gottscheers, a Germanic group from what is today Slovenia, which made its home in Ridgewood, Queens and the surrounding area.

Tamang

तामाङ
One community member estimates that more than 1,000 Tamang people are now in New York, though there is substantial diversity in what it means to be Tamang and a number of different languages may be involved. Many in New York may come from the Kathmandu Valley, Chitwan, and Gorkha District, with an estimated 40 to 50 coming from the Western Tamang districts of Nuwakot, Dhading, and Rasuwa where knowledge of Tibetan, practice of shamanism, and a historical connection to the salt trade are more prominent. The Tamang Society of America is one community institution.

Tosk Albanian

Shqip (Tosk)
Speakers of Tosk Albanian varieties, from southern areas of the Albanian-speaking world including Albania's capital city Tirana, often live near Gegs but also have a significant concentration in Brooklyn neighborhoods from Flatbush to Bensonhurst and in New Jersey. As with Geg Albanian speakers, they are often proficient in Italian for historical reasons and have settled in New York neighborhoods with high concentrations of ethnic Italians. Many likewise came during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the wars that followed, but a smaller group, primarily Christian, came in the first half of the 20th century.
Additional languages spoken in this neighborhood:
  • Bosnian
  • Ecuadorian Spanish
  • Geg Albanian
  • Italian
  • Kham Tibetan
  • Macedonian
  • Polish
  • Serbian
  • Ukrainian
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Ridgewood

Queens

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