Language City

Starred review from November 13, 2023
As home to more than 700 languages, New York is “the most linguistically diverse city in the history of the world,” writes Perlin (Intern Nation), codirector of the nonprofit Endangered Language Alliance, in this enthralling account of his attempts to document dozens of the rarest languages that have flourished there. He profiles six individuals in Brooklyn and Queens who speak an endangered tongue, among them Rasmina, who lives in a “vertical village” (a six-story apartment building) of some 700 Seke speakers that hail from five towns in northern Nepal. She is working to transcribe and preserve the language, even as the residents transition to speaking the more common Nepali of their neighbors. Other languages featured are Wakhi, which originates from the area where Tajikistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and China converge; Nahuatl, which is spoken in remote areas of Mexico; and several West African languages that are being newly transcribed by the unifying N’ko alphabet. Perlin uses language as a window into N.Y.C. history, with engrossing deep dives into, for example, the “Harlemese” of the 1920s (sometimes called “jive”) that was influenced by several Black immigrant groups, elements of which quickly caught on around the world. The result is an immersive meander through N.Y.C.’s past and present that brings to the fore its multitudinous nature. Readers will be engrossed.