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We all know that New York is a melting pot—but this new interactive map by the Endangered Language Alliance really puts things in perspective.
The non-profit, which documents and supports "linguistic diversity and endangered languages in New York City and beyond," put ten years of work into this visual showcase of the city's linguistic diversity. The map highlights almost 700 lingos and dialects "confirmed to nearly 1,200 significant sites, including neighborhoods, community institutions, restaurants and other locations where there is, or was, at least one speaker."
You'll notice a total of 1,200 clickable dots on the map. Zooming in on each one will showcase more information about the language spoken in the area, the historical origins of the dialect and the number of people that belong to that particular community within New York.
Keep in mind that the highlighted vernaculars go beyond the sorts of languages you're used to hearing while walking around the city's streets: From Abruzzese (a Southern Italian dialect) to Buginese (Indonesian/Malaysian) and Akan (Ghana), it all gets very specific.
According to the data, "approximately 38% of the languages shown are from Asia, 24% from Africa, 19% from Europe, 16% from the Americas and the rest from Oceania and the Pacific." And the highlighted dialects go beyond the sorts of languages you're used to hearing while walking around the city's streets:
Perhaps most excitingly, users can filter the data by video, so you'll get to actually stream some footage of native speakers in New York.
Feel free to play around with the map above and learn more about the project right here.
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