Neighborhood

Sunnyside

Queens
In the Census-defined PUMA including Sunnyside & Woodside, according to recent Census data, (in descending order) Bengali, Mandarin, Nepali, Cantonese, and Tibetan each hold more than 1000 speakers. English, Spanish, Tagalog, and Korean 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:

Bumthang

བུམ་ཐང་ཁ་
One community member estimates that as many as 1,000 people from Bhutan are now in the city, though it is unclear whether or not this includes the Nepali-speaking Lhotsampa people who have fled Bhutan as refugees and may not be Dzongkha speakers. Besides Dzongkha, the national language, the most widely spoken language among non-Lhotsampa Bhutanese is Sharchop, but there are also a small number of speakers of Bumthang, Kurtöp, Kheng, Chocha-ngacha, and probably other languages of Bhutan. The largest concentration is in Sunnyside as well as Astoria and Elmhurst, near other Himalayans, but a small percentage are in Brooklyn and scattered individuals in the Bronx and Westchester and likely elsewhere.

Chocha-ngacha

ཁྱོད་ཅ་ང་ཅ་ཁ་
One community member estimates that as many as 1,000 people from Bhutan are now in the city, though it is unclear whether or not this includes the Nepali-speaking Lhotsampa people who have fled Bhutan as refugees and may not be Dzongkha speakers. Besides Dzongkha, the national language, the most widely spoken language among non-Lhotsampa Bhutanese is Sharchop, but there are also a small number of speakers of Bumthang, Kurtöp, Kheng, Chocha-ngacha, and probably other languages of Bhutan. The largest concentration is in Sunnyside as well as Astoria and Elmhurst, near other Himalayans, but a small percentage are in Brooklyn and scattered individuals in the Bronx and Westchester and likely elsewhere.

Dzongkha

རྫོང་ཁ་
One community member estimates that as many as 1,000 people from Bhutan are now in the city, though it is unclear whether or not this includes the Nepali-speaking Lhotsampa people who have fled Bhutan as refugees and may not be Dzongkha speakers. Besides Dzongkha, the national language, the most widely spoken language among non-Lhotsampa Bhutanese is Sharchop, but there are also a small number of speakers of Bumthang, Kurtöp, Kheng, Chocha-ngacha, and probably other languages of Bhutan. The largest concentration is in Sunnyside as well as Astoria and Elmhurst, near other Himalayans, but a small percentage are in Brooklyn and scattered individuals in the Bronx and Westchester and likely elsewhere.

Guarani

Avañe'ẽ
Guarani is the only Indigenous language of Latin America to have been adopted by a wider non-Indigenous population — along with Spanish, it is an official language of Paraguay. The I Love Paraguay restaurant in Sunnyside is a place where Paraguayans of various ethnicities gather and may speak the language. The Escuela Paraguaya de Nueva York nearby is part of the Paraguayan community's attempt to pass on the culture. Several thousand Paraguayans, including many who know Guarani, are thought to live in Westchester: "mainly in White Plains, but also in Mamaroneck, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle," according to the general coordinator of the New York Paraguayan Soccer Association.

Kurtöp

ཀུར་ཏོ་པ་ཁ་
One community member estimates that as many as 1,000 people from Bhutan are now in the city, though it is unclear whether or not this includes the Nepali-speaking Lhotsampa people who have fled Bhutan as refugees and may not be Dzongkha speakers. Besides Dzongkha, the national language, the most widely spoken language among non-Lhotsampa Bhutanese is Sharchop, but there are also a small number of speakers of Bumthang, Kurtöp, Kheng, Chocha-ngacha, and probably other languages of Bhutan. The largest concentration is in Sunnyside as well as Astoria and Elmhurst, near other Himalayans, but a small percentage are in Brooklyn and scattered individuals in the Bronx and Westchester and likely elsewhere.

Manang

ङ्‍येश्याङ्‍ते
Manang speakers come to New York from five villages in the Manang district of Nepal. The Manang Samaj (Society) connects these 300 or so Manang speakers with meetings and events to preserve their native language, culture, and traditions. Notable celebrations include Losar (Tibetan New Year) in February and the annual festival of Metha (Archery), a traditional Manang practice. Other languages spoken in Manang, and by Manang people in New York, are Gyalsumdo and Nar-Phu.

Moldovan

Moldovenească
Moldovan is sometimes described as a form of Romanian spoken in Moldova, or as a language variety very closely related to Romanian. Some differences (including the use of Cyrillic for writing before 1989, and still today in Transnistria) may be attributable to Moldova having been part of the Soviet Union. A few Moldovan restaurants have opened in Brooklyn and Queens, reflecting that multilingual Moldovans may be in interaction with both Romanian- and Russian-speaking New Yorkers.

Nar-Phu

नार-फू
Speakers of these closely related varieties come either from Nar (around 40 in New York) or Phu (around 60). Besides one household in Brooklyn, others live across western Queens. Other languages spoken in Manang, and by Manang people in New York, are Manang and Gyalsumdo.

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.

Sharchop

ཆང་ལོ་ཁ་
One community member estimates that as many as 1,000 people from Bhutan are now in the city, though it is unclear whether or not this includes the Nepali-speaking Lhotsampa people who have fled Bhutan as refugees and may not be Dzongkha speakers. Besides Dzongkha, the national language, the most widely spoken language among non-Lhotsampa Bhutanese is Sharchop, but there are also a small number of speakers of Bumthang, Kurtöp, Kheng, Chocha-ngacha, and probably other languages of Bhutan. The largest concentration is in Sunnyside as well as Astoria and Elmhurst, near other Himalayans, but a small percentage are in Brooklyn and scattered individuals in the Bronx and Westchester and likely elsewhere.

Turkish

Türkçe
New York's major Turkish-speaking concentrations are in and around Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, where the American Turkish Eyüp Sultan Cultural Center is a gathering place, and Sunnyside in Queens (home to the Turkish Cultural Center Queens), with a substantial community as well in Paterson, New Jersey (centered in part on the United Islamic Center). This includes speakers of a number of Oghuz varieties from west of the Caucasus, including Istanbul, Black Sea, Anatolian, and Bulgarian Turkish — as well as speakers of Cypriot Turkish, who have a community in the Bronx.

Tö Tibetan

སྟོད་སྐད་
Tibetan-speaking New Yorkers have come from across the culturally and religiously Tibetan world, including many refugees who immigrate via India and Nepal. There are some institutions more oriented towards Westerners with an interest in Tibet, such as Tibet House in Manhattan, but most Tibetans have settled in the Queens neighborhoods of Astoria, Sunnyside, Woodside, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and Corona, with smaller numbers in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and others now branching out elsewhere — with important religious centers also upstate in Woodstock and Walden. (ELA recognizes that the Chinese government's rule in Tibet is disputed.)

Western Armenian

Արեւմտահայերէն
Following initial settlement in Manhattan, many Armenians began moving to Queens after the Second World War. The community in Sunnyside, also an important center for Romanian New Yorkers, was substantially Romanian-Armenian, and Baruir's, famous for its coffee, was founded by Baruir Nercessian, a genocide survivor who came to Queens via Romania. Later, many second- and third-generation Armenians in New York, like Greek communities, moved to eastern Queens neighborhoods such as Bayside and Douglaston-Little Neck.
Additional languages spoken in this neighborhood:
  • Amdo Tibetan
  • Aromanian
  • Bhojpuri
  • Dolpo
  • Irish
  • Khalkha Mongolian
  • Kham Magar
  • Kham Tibetan
  • Kyirong
  • Limi
  • Loke
  • Magar
  • Nepali
  • Newari
  • Pampangan
  • Ramaluk
  • Sherpa
  • Tagalog
  • Tibetan
  • Tsum
  • Ü-Tsang Tibetan
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Sunnyside

Queens

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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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