The Endangered Language Alliance recently released a map of the approximately 800 languages spoken in the New York Metropolitan Area and with 637 languages and dialects spoken in NYC alone, it makes us the most linguistically diverse city in the world and maybe even in history.
This linguistic diversity is ever present in The Bronx and shouldn’t be a surprise as our borough was declared as the most diverse county in the country by the Census stating that there is over an 80% chance that two random people in The Bronx speak different languages other than English.
Looking at this map, you’ll notice some things that aren’t surprising Italian English in Morris Park, Albanian along Pelham Parkway, Puerto Rican Spanish across Melrose, Hunts Point, and Longwood, and of course, Italian, specifically the Barese, Calabrese, and Sicilian dialects in Belmont.
But what may surprise you, as it did us, is the rich diversity of indigenous languages of Latin America, particularly Mexico, like Tlapanec, Mixtec, and Zapotec throughout Mott Haven, or that Yiddish is still spoken in The Bronx up in Norwood.
Anywho, take a look at the map on their website where you can zoom in and if you want a copy, you can contribute to this important body of work and get one delivered to you!
