Endangered Language Alliance

What is the future of linguistic diversity in America? Today it is more uncertain than ever.  This land is home to hundreds of Native languages and has received hundreds more through immigration—nowhere more so than in ELA’s home of New York City—but very few of those languages are assured a future here. Language shift and… Continue reading The future of linguistic diversity in America

Recent events at ELA have included weekly textile and language sessions with Indigenous Mexican New York women (below right) and a workshop with Indian “fontwallah”, master typographer and calligrapher Rajeev Prakash Khare organized by his niece, actor/playwright Shubhra Prakash (below left). Not to mention a very ELA celebration (not pictured) of El dia de los… Continue reading Fall events

Since this summer, an ELA team has been working closely and consistently with a young Afghani refugee from the remote Nuristan region, which contains a group of languages that have long puzzled specialists as to their historical position within the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European. We have been working with her to map the sound system, basic vocabulary and… Continue reading New work on Ashkun (Nuristani)

Get ready for Language City, an outdoor performance about the past, present, and future of New York — the world’s most linguistically diverse city. The project is a collaboration between ELA and Gung Ho Projects, premiering at Little Island, Manhattan’s extraordinary new park, on August 14, 15, 17, and 18 at 6:30 pm (note no… Continue reading Language City: The Show—Coming in 2 Weeks!

Thanks for your patience as we slowly edge our way into the modern world! Check out https://elalliance.myshopify.com/, where it’s easy than ever to donate any amount to ELA or give to get one of our maps, t-shirts, or storybooks. It’ll soon be integrated into this site as well. Shoot us a note at info@elalliance.org if… Continue reading New Shopify Store Live!

In “The World Capital of Endangered Languages”, New York Times journalist Alex Carp follows ELA’s work documenting and mapping endangered languages in New York and beyond. Citing LANGUAGE CITY—the new book about the city’s languages and ELA’s work by co-director Ross Perlin—the piece also features (literally) moving portraits of speakers of a dozen languages from… Continue reading ELA in the NY Times

Free upcoming NYC and virtual events for LANGUAGE CITY, the story of NYC’s linguistic diversity and ELA’s work—with more to come! Tuesday 2/20, 7 pm: Strand Bookstore (Manhattan) w/Thomas Dyja (SOLD OUT) Wednesday 2/28, 6:30 pm: Gotham Center for NYC History (virtual) w/Nancy Foner (SOLD OUT) Sunday 3/3, 7:30 pm: Topos Too (Queens) w/Maru Ponce Wednesday… Continue reading LANGUAGE CITY events

Happy International Mother Language Day! We’re celebrating with the launch of ELA Co-Director Ross Perlin’s new book Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York. The book is about the past, present, and future of the most linguistically diverse place in history, New York City, as told through ELA’s work at the… Continue reading International Mother Language Day & Language City

For a limited time only, we are offering maps which have experienced some wear and tear, but are still very much legible, for just $20 to cover our expenses. In perfect condition these go for $50. See the image below. Note that the corners of the maps may be bent, and some of the surface may… Continue reading Get an NYC language map for $20!

Join us at ELA’s office (3 W 18th St, 6th Fl) for a talk by linguist Owen Edwards of the University of Leiden and UBB Kupang. Dive into the linguistic deep end! Everyone is welcome! The talk will provide a complete analysis of metathesis (inversion of sounds, e.g. pt > tp) in Amarasi, an Austronesian language of western Timor.… Continue reading 9/5 at 6 pm: Metathesis and Unmetathesis in Amarasi

Our free event series Unheard Of! Languages and Literatures from Around the World continues. There’s no event on May 16 has been cancelled, but the last event of the season (NYC Poetry in Every Language) will be live at ELA on June 13, 6:30 pm (3 W 18th Street, 6th Fl). Details and free RSVP here:… Continue reading Next event June 13; no May event

Join us on April 4 at 6:30 for Teaching Endangered Languages Against the Odds, part of our continuing event series Unheard Of! Languages and Literatures from Around the World. It’s free and open all to all — just let us know you’re coming by RSVPing here. The location is ELA’s office in Manhattan at 3 W 18th Street (6th… Continue reading Teaching Endangered Languages Against the Odds

Next week comes the next installement of our free event series Unheard Of! Languages and Literatures from Around the World. It’s free and open all to all — just let us know you’re coming by RSVPing here. The location is ELA’s office in Manhattan at 3 W 18th Street (6th Floor), close to Union Square and a… Continue reading NYC Events Next Week!

Come celebrate International Mother Language Day (2/21) live at ELA in NYC! Throughout the day, we have three in-person events throughout the day. RSVP here and drop in for any or all. 1:30-2:30 pm: “Why and how should we protect multilingualism?” A panel discussion hosted virtually by Manchester City of Languages as part of the Muslim Arts &… Continue reading International Mother Language Day Bonanza

Save the dates! Announcing the return of ELA’s long-running event series “Unheard Of! Languages and Literatures From Around the World”—one per month, Tuesday evenings, live in NYC, free and open to all, about, in, around, and for Language.  

With #GivingTuesday next week and the holidays coming up, give the person you love who loves languages a unique gift—by supporting our year-end Facebook fundraiser! (You can also give with a credit card via Paypal or by mailing us a check.) Donate just $40 ($10 off) to get an all-color, full-scale (24” x 36”, standard-frame-size)… Continue reading Special Year-End Offer

ELA is looking for a short-term, part-time volunteer to help catalog and organize its print and digital collections, with any needed training and supervision provided. This will take place in person at our 18th Street office in Manhattan, beginning as soon as possible, with flexible scheduling but some weekday availability preferred. No experience required, but… Continue reading Collections Volunteer Wanted

On September 25, ELA was invited to table at the annual Bronx Native American Festival in Pelham Bay Park. For over 25 years, master of ceremonies Bobby Gonzalez has led the celebration, inviting a number of musicians, dancers, and storytellers to share traditions from a wide range of Native cultures. Indigenous representation ranged from Taino… Continue reading Powwow in the Bronx

In July, ELA launched a slew of new programs run by and centered on East Harlem’s Indigenous community, where Tu’un Savi (Mixtec), Mam, Nahuatl, and other Indigenous Latin American languages are spoken. Health—and particularly health literacy—has been at the heart of these programs, which are all about the connections between health on the one hand… Continue reading La Lucha Continua

On June 15, ELA was at Queens Borough Hall with the founders of the Queens Night Market, the Queens Historical Society, the Queens Library, students from Newcomers High School, and a number of other groups as part of the inaugural Festival of NY. We showed the language map, introduced ELA’s work, and met an amazing… Continue reading ELA @ This is NY in Queens

On May 1, ELA Co-Director Daniel Kaufman and long-time ELA collaborator and Tu’un Savi (Mixtec) speaker Ismael Alvarez take on the grueling 40-mile Five Boro Bike Tour for the cause of Indigenous languages. Support our small fundraiser here: https://gofund.me/75117eee Every dollar raised will go to compensating speakers of Ismael’s mother tongue, Tu’un Savi (Mixteco), to record, transcribe and translate… Continue reading Biking for Indigenous Languages

Let’s be realistic. When a year begins with an attempted insurrection intent on replacing the few remnants of democracy with a fascist ethnostate, it leaves a lot of room for improvement over the next 11 months. Under such circumstances, just keeping the lights on can feel like landing on Mars! For the second year in… Continue reading 2021 — a year of languages

To say thank you for your donations, we have gifts at special prices through the end of the year: language maps, t-shirts, and storybooks. Children’s books, recordings with elders, free public events, digital mapping, public health messages in Indigenous languages by and for Indigenous communities — these are just some of the things that ELA… Continue reading #GivingTuesday — Through the End of the Year

Join us this coming Saturday October 16 from 1 pm to celebrate the closing of two artist installations at the ELA house on Governors Island: Mother Tongues by Yuri Marder and The Migration Codex by Cinthya Santos Briones. Meet the artists and come hear music and poetry in the Indigenous languages of Mexico! Mixtec music master… Continue reading Closing Celebration for “Mother Tongues” and “The Migration Codex”

Early fall is one of the most beautiful times out on Governors Island, and ELA will still be in residency at our house in Nolan Park (building 4A) through October. But with a twist: with summer crowds thinning and NYC taking more precautions around Covid, we’ll be more in residency-mode with fewer events and without… Continue reading September and October on Governors Island

It’s been a busy summer! ELA’s house on Governors Island will be closed this weekend (August 7-8) for a little R&R, but we’ll be back next weekend (August 14-15).

Join us for a free double-header this Saturday July 31 at ELA’s house on beautiful Governors Island in New York Harbor. Reserve your ferry tickets soon! 2-3 pm, The World in the City: Garifuna sing-along with James Lovell and Alex Colon Musician and language activist James Lovell, togehter with percussionist Alex Colon, will be teaching… Continue reading July 31: Garifuna song and Indonesian dance on Governors Island

This Saturday July 17 from 2 pm on, stop by and learn about ELA’s new digital language map of NYC (languagemap.nyc), featuring over 700 languages at over 1200 sites around the metro area. ELA Co-Director Ross Perlin, an editor of the map, will be at ELA’s house on Governors Island (Nolan Park Building 4A) all… Continue reading Language Mapping This Saturday on Governors Island

This Saturday June 5 at 2 pm, ELA is kicking off “The World in the City”, its summer residency on wonderful Governors Island, just minutes (by ferry) from Manhattan and Brooklyn. Join us for a safe, low-key, super-casual meet and greet (it’s been way too long!). It will also be a first look at this summer’s… Continue reading This Saturday — Come See Us on Governors Island!

It’s live: LANGUAGEMAP.NYC.  It’s now been over a decade since we first began documenting the languages of NYC, the most linguistically diverse city in the world. Today we can finally share much more of what we’ve learned from thousands of conversations with speakers, community leaders, and so many others. The free, interactive, digital version of Languages of New… Continue reading The Digital NYC Language Map is Live!

It was supposed to be our 10th anniversary, but this wasn’t a year for celebration. It was a year of doing what we could to continue our work, despite limitations.

In honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a piece of Nahuatl graffiti spotted by ELA board member Juliette Blevins in South Mountain Reserve, New Jersey: “I love you.”

ELA’s work is all about what happens when communities, linguists, artists, students, and language lovers come together — usually in person, in a room, at a community center, at a festival, up a mountain or on a Brooklyn street corner… But in the meantime a lot of amazing work is going on virtually, opening up new… Continue reading Classes, Fieldwork, and More (Virtually!)

Varieties of what became Judeo-Spanish (now widely known as Ladino) were once spoken by Sephardim, the Jews of Spain — approximately 100,000-175,000 of whom were expelled from Spain in 1492. While some went to Portugal and others to Morocco, the vast majority went to the Ottoman Empire, maintaining and developing their distinctive language for over 500 years. By the… Continue reading Introducing Ladino New York

For the next few months, the Endangered Language Alliance will be hosting a small residency program on Governors Island, the exciting new arts and culture hub in the middle of New York Harbor, giving space to linguists, language activists, and other creators doing related work at a challenging time. Residents will work on ongoing projects documenting… Continue reading A New Residency on Governors Island

ELA is still working remotely and has suspended all in-person events, including language classes, for the time being — but see below for past and upcoming events. July 12: ELA researcher Nawang Gurung at the Columbia’s Weatherhead Institute on “Tibetan and Himalayan Communities in a Covid-19 World” July 17: ELA collaborator Sienna Craig spoke at the “2020 International Tibetan Medicine Conference… Continue reading Virtual Events

Today officially marks NYC’s reopening, but the extraordinary events of the past few weeks, driven by mourning and anger and hope in the wake of George Floyd’s killing, have already brought the city back to life. At ELA, we are continuing to do what we can to record and reverberate the voices of speakers and communities struggling for justice.… Continue reading Reopening — to a New Reality

Nearly every day since April, 14 New Yorkers from diverse backgrounds speaking 10 different Himalayan and Indigenous Latin American languages have been recording diaries of their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic at the epicenter of the epicenter: NYC’s multilingual immigrant neighborhoods. Now hundreds of these recordings are freely available via Soundcloud, with English summaries for… Continue reading Diaries from the Epicenter: Immigrant New Yorkers Talk About COVID-19

Since late March, New York City has been the global epicenter of the COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic, with more than 170,000 confirmed cases and over 18,000 confirmed deaths as of early May. Nearly every New Yorker has been affected, but the effects have not been evenly distributed. While there is emerging evidence in city data of serious… Continue reading The Impact of COVID-19 on New York City’s Multilingual Immigrant Communities

With over 4,000 COVID-19 cases reported in NYC, over 10,000 across the country, and over 200,000 around the world, we are not just in a public health crisis but in a growing economic crisis and communications crisis. ELA is responding — remotely, since our office is closed to keep everyone safe — by doing more of what we’ve already… Continue reading Language Support at a Time of Crisis

ELA is suspending all upcoming events, including language classes, for the time being. Please keep an eye on our website, on our Facebook page, and on future newsletters for any updates. We hope everyone stays safe.

It’s not just the election this year — the 2020 Census is a big deal. Census response rates in cities and particularly in minority, immigrant, and mulitlingual communities are chronically low due to fear, poor outreach, language access, and a range of other factors. As a result, the communities are rendered politically invisible and lose resources. ELA is working as… Continue reading The 2020 Census — in Every Language!

From May until September, ELA will have a residency in a historic house on Governors Island, an emerging seasonal hub for arts and non-profit activities in the middle of New York Harbor. Hundreds of thousands of people visit Governors Island every summer, and we hope you’ll stop by and see us. We’ll be open every… Continue reading ELA @ Governors Island

In honor of International Mother Language Day, an opportunity to celebrate all of the world’s approximately 7,000 languages, we’re proud to announce the release of a first-ever set of official videos in Indigenous and minority languages for The City of New York! ELA has been working with the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and other city agencies on… Continue reading IMLD in NYC 2020

Since its release in December, ELA’s “Languages of New York” map has been featured in a range of publications, including Gothamist, Time Out, The Daily Sun (New York’s daily Japanese newspaper), with re-tweets by the New York City’s Mayor Office and leading New York City politicians. Then a few weeks ago, The New York Times… Continue reading ELA’s Language Map in the News

ELA’s network — linguists, community leaders, language activists, speakers, students, and ordinary New Yorkers — has been working all year to bring resources and attention to the languages and cultures that need them. Here are just a few of the highlights: In January, we continued our tradition of hosting language classes in less commonly taught languages, with Lenape and Quechua classes… Continue reading 2019 – A Year of Languages

On December 3, #GivingTuesday, Facebook may match any donations we get on their platform. Those donations go right into our work documenting and support endangered languages in New York and around the world — and doubling them really matters. Please donate and spread the word. To say thanks, we’re sending donors our beautiful new language maps. Anyone who gives… Continue reading On #GivingTuesday, Support Languages and Get a Map

ELA Co-Directors Ross Perlin and Daniel Kaufman spoke last week on “Language Access, Health, and Indigenous Communities in New York City” at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancel Center’s Immigrant Health and Cancer Disparities Service. It was a unique opportunity to bridge the gap between linguist work and public health, specifically addressing NYC’s substantial and growing Indigenous… Continue reading Connecting Language and Health

Donate $50 to ELA in support of ELA’s work with speakers of languages in New York and around the world — and we’ll mail you our brand-new, full-scale (24 x 36), all-color language map of New York City, featuring 637 languages at 983 different sites, is ready! If you donate $65, we’ll add in EITHER… Continue reading NYC Language Maps — Available Now!

We’re excited to announce two upcoming Himalayan-themed events in NYC. On the evening of Thursday October 24, a rare screening of Trembling Mountain, a film about the Nepal earthquake of 2015, including Q&A with the filmmaker, ELA’s friend Kesang Tseten, at the Maysles Theater in Harlem. Suggested donation. The next day Friday October 25 at Columbia, join us… Continue reading Upcoming Himalayan New York Events!

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 @ 7 PM (Soho, NYC) HOW TO REVIVE A FADING LANGUAGE Join ELA and the great public radio station WNYC, with Micropolis host Arun Venugopal, for a night of performances, audience participation and plenty of hearty conversation — previewed here. You’ll learn phrases and hear music and stories in languages that New Yorkers are keeping alive and well in… Continue reading Fall Events

Join us on Memorial Day (May 27, doors open at 1 pm) for this free community event celebrating the songs and singers of the Himalayan diaspora in New York, open to everyone! If you’re on Facebook, let us know if you’re coming here. Email info@elalliance.org for more info.

Our full-scale (24 x 36), all-color language map of New York City, featuring 631 languages at 970 different sites, is ready! We’re now offering the First Edition of this unique map to anyone who donates $50 in support of ELA’s work with speakers of languages in New York and around the world. (If you’ve already… Continue reading NYC Language Map: 631 languages at 970 sites

Save the date: on Sunday February 24, from 2 pm, join ELA at University Settlement on Manhattan’s Lower East Side for a no-holds-barred language marathon, featuring speakers of languages from around the world! Donations are appreciated, but everyone is welcome. We’ll also have a special sale going, with ELA’s Queens language maps and unique t-shirts both going for… Continue reading Language Marathon on the Lower East Side

Celebrate International Mother Language Day, the Year of Indigenous Languages, and Black History Month by going to hear our long-time collaborator and friend James Lovell —with a team of percussionists and dancers — discuss and perform Garifuna music at the National Museum of the American Indian in downtown NYC. More details below: Native Sounds Downtown! Garifuna… Continue reading Native Sounds Downtown! Garifuna in NYC

Remote rural communities in Botswana are among the poorest areas in the country. We request funding to help pay for daily necessities such as food and clothing, and to help provide financial support to young people who wish to pursue educational opportunities.  ELA is supporting this effort as a fiscal sponsor. Donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/poverty-relief-in-rural-botswana Funding Request:… Continue reading Help alleviate poverty in rural Botswana

Starting October 15, ELA will be hosting weekly introductory Quechua classes from our old friends New York Quechua Collective, 7 to 9 pm every Monday at ELA’s office in Manhattan. Sign up here! On October 19 the American Museum of Natural History will host Ciao Babylon, a film about ELA’s work, as part of the Margaret Mead Film Festival. On… Continue reading Upcoming Events

This summer, with support from a National Geographic Explorer grant, a team from ELA is traveling across the Pamir region of Tajikistan and an adjacent area of western China, interviewing over 70 speakers and singers in a dozen different languages — primarily under-documented, endangered Iranic languages of the Pamiri subgroup such as Wakhi and Shughni, which… Continue reading Exploring the Other Roof of the World

Working with NYC’s Department of Health and the Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service, ELA launched a 7-week series of activities in East Harlem centered on indigenous food, language, and community. Led by Nahuatl teacher Irwin Sánchez, the project brought together Mixtec and Mam mothers to share recipes, transmit languages, and talk about… Continue reading Connecting Indigenous Food, Health, and Language

With speakers of as many as 800 languages, contemporary New York City is the most linguistically diverse place in the history of the world. Kexaptun — “a few words” in Lenape, the endangered indigenous language of New York City — is ELA’ ongoing project to collect and create poems about or set in the City, in as… Continue reading Kexaptùn: Poetry in NYC’s Oldest and Newest Languages

Over the past year, ELA continued its mission to document linguistic diversity both in our hometown of New York City, a global language capital, and around the world. We partnered with government agencies, high schools, museums, community groups, language activists and Google to support dozens of languages from five continents. In January, we launched a new hyper-multilingual… Continue reading 2017 — a year of languages

Working with communities on their languages is about more than just figuring out how the verbs work. Speakers of minority and endangered languages are marginalized both around the world and in New York City, with little access to the services that majority groups take for granted. That’s why, earlier this year, ELA started working with… Continue reading ELA and the NYC Department of Health

New York City may be the most linguistically diverse place in the world, but that diversity began with Lunaape (also called Lenape or Delaware), a Native American language of the Algonquian family. Today, Lunaape is being revitalized in communities in Canada, Oklahoma, and elsewhere. ELA is honored to host classes taught by Karen Hunter, who… Continue reading Lunaape, the indigenous language of NYC

We’re excited to announce that we’re partnering with Google Cultural Institute to launch online exhibits of some of our projects. Through this new platform, we can bring even more photos, videos, audio, and information to you in a format that’s made to feel as if you’re exploring an exhibit at a museum. Below is a preview of our… Continue reading ELA on the Google Cultural Institute

ELA is proud to announce a new series of videos —“¡Conozca sus derechos!” (Know your rights!) — that respond to the new threats that immigrants and refugee communities are facing. Now more than ever, it’s vital that speakers of endangered languages know their rights and aren’t left out of the conversation. Our first four videos are in Nahuatl, Ki’che’, Totonac,… Continue reading ¡Conozca sus derechos! (Know your rights)

As is plain to see, it has been a tumultuous few weeks here in New York City. We take this opportunity to stand with the many other non-profit organizations, institutions and individuals around the country who have expressed their shock and dismay at recent events. We will repeat what has already been declared so many… Continue reading Ancient wisdom for modern crises

As a registered non-profit organization, ELA cannot endorse political candidates, nor did we want to add to the ceaseless chatter during what felt like an eternal campaign here in the US. But there have been some points that we cannot in good conscience ignore without comment. In particular, one campaign has ruthlessly targeted Mexican immigrants… Continue reading Election day eve

We’re thrilled to share “Mother Tongues and Queens” — a language map of the world’s languages capital! The map shows NYC’s linguistic diversity in more detail than ever before, reflecting ELA’s work over the last 6 years. The map is featured in the fabulous, just-released “Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas” edited by Rebecca… Continue reading A New Language Map of Queens!

Through the initiative of Breizh Amerika founder, Charles Kergaravat, a unique musical collaboration between Breton and Garifuna musicians entitled the Breizh Amerika Collective has put forth a striking new album “Asambles. Uwarani. Together”. Trust us, you’ve never heard anything like it. Help support endangered musical cultures in New York and around the world. Donate $25 or more to… Continue reading Breton-Garifuna Musical Magic

Over the last several months, led by project coordinator Nawang Tsering Gurung — originally from Mustang, Nepal and now living in Queens — ELA has launched Voices of the Himalaya, a new project exploring the lived experiences of migration and social change among Himalayan New Yorkers. The aim is to document the languages, cultures, social… Continue reading Voices of the Himalaya

On Tuesday June 21 at 6:30 pm, come listen in on a live podcast taping, featuring ELA and The World in Words at the New York Public Library, one of the world’s great research institutions, with materials on over 430 languages. The hosts of The World in Words, Patrick Cox and Nina Porzucki, will explore what’s happening… Continue reading The World in Words: From Ainu to Zaza

ELA is collaborating with the Queens Museum, at the center of one of the most linguistically diverse places on earth, on two exhibits and a series of public events. This Saturday June 11, from 2 to 4 pm, “Languages Lost and Found: A Roundtable” will feature writers, translators, linguists and practitioners discussing language endangerment, revitalization… Continue reading Endangered Languages at the Queens Museum

A new introductory Hawaiian class, starting this Thursday night, June 9 and continuing every Thursday night in June from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm! ʻO ke alelo ka hoeuli. The tongue is the steering paddle of the words uttered by the mouth. In celebration of Hōkūleʻa’s World Wide Voyage named “Mālama Honua,” Ka Leo Nūioka and launching its… Continue reading Hawaiian and Quechua Classes at ELA!

In this 8th installment of the Unheard Of! series, ELA continues to promote poetry, song and story-telling in endangered languages from around the world. Tsou, an indigenous language of Taiwan, has less than 2,000 living speakers but is well-known for its ceremonial choral songs. Baitz (Paicu) Niahosa is one of the few Tsou singers writing new… Continue reading “Unheard Of!” Returns With New Songs from Indigenous Taiwan

Join us this summer at our office in the heart of NYC. The short online application is due on February 26 at 5 pm EST. Apply and help us spread the word! What’s it like to volunteer at ELA? We’re small, friendly, flexible, and driven. We match people with projects based on their skills, interests,… Continue reading Volunteer at ELA This Summer!

In January, we opened “Mother Tongues” at the City Lore gallery, the first-ever exhibit dedicated to the languages of New York City. In the same month, PBS premiered the documentary Language Matters with Bob Holman, produced in conjunction with ELA and screened nationwide to critical acclaim. Throughout February and March, ELA presented events featuring Garifuna arumahani, a traditional, now endangered song genre; Yiddish folk music; and the languages of the Caucasus. April marked the beginning of our three-year… Continue reading 2015 at ELA

The fieldtrip was a huge success! Some 30 people of many ages and backgrounds came along for Juhuri dancing, singing in Judeo-Arabic, out-of-this-world baklava, and even a look at an extraordinary collection of antiquarian books in lesser-known Jewish languages. We even got a write-up (in Yiddish) in the Yiddish Forward! This is a small group tour and… Continue reading Jewish Languages of Brooklyn: A Fieldtrip

2015 MAS Summit for New York City Thursday, October 22 • 7:00pm – 8:30pm Jane Jacobs Forum: Sensing the City Hosted by the MAS Urbanists This session is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Reception at 5:30PM / Program at 7:00PM Jane Jacobs’ rallying cry that healthy cities must have “eyes… Continue reading ELA at the Jane Jacobs Forum

ELA co-presents two fantastic films this year at the Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History. Catch them both this Saturday! Khonsay: Poem of Many Tongues  Bob Holman 2015 | 15 minutes | U.S.A. Director in Attendance Both a celebration of the world’s languages and a call to action to preserve… Continue reading Bering and Khonsay at the Margaret Mead Film Festival

2015 MAS Summit for New York City Thursday, October 22 • 7:00pm – 8:30pm Jane Jacobs Forum: Sensing the City Hosted by the MAS Urbanists This session is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Reception at 5:30PM / Program at 7:00PM Jane Jacobs’ rallying cry that healthy cities must have “eyes… Continue reading ELA at the Jane Jacobs Forum this Thursday (Oct 22)

At the edge of the same ocean, two cultural worlds have thrived despite hardship. Their languages are unique and face extinction. Their music booms with joyful rhythm and is all about sparking the dance. Sometimes salty, sometimes moving, songs are often danced. As feet pound in both communities, you’ll hear a voice call out, greeted… Continue reading Two Streams Fed by Rhythm: The Surprising Confluence of Breton and Garifuna Sounds Debuts in May

Brentwood Bay, B.C. – The Endangered Languages Project is launching a new website today (www.endangeredlanguages.com) to improve access to information and resources on endangered languages for a global audience of Indigenous language speakers and language experts. “Our goal is to create a collaborative online space where the world’s languages have a voice and where people… Continue reading Endangered Languages Project website redesigned to be more accessible and engaging

Nahuatl Language Through Food February 26 @ 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Did you know the words for chocolate, tomato, avocado and chile all come form the Nahuatl language? Join Nahuatl teacher Irwin Sanchez as he discusses the etymologies behind popular Mexican cuisine and demonstrates the traditional preparation of several dishes. Not only will participants… Continue reading Nahuatl language through food

February 18, 6:30 AM – 9:00 PM City Lore Gallery 56 E. 1st Street New York, NY Film Screening of the new PBS documentary, Language Matters. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Bob Holman, host of the film, and Daniel Kaufman, ELA executive director. There are over 6,000 languages remaining in the world.… Continue reading Screening of “Language Matters”

MOTHER TONGUES: ENDANGERED LANGUAGES IN NEW YORK CITY AND BEYOND ELA in collaboration with City Lore and Bowery Arts + Science presents Mother Tongues: Endangered Languages in NYC and Beyond, an exhibit from Jan 29 – April 16, 2015 at: the City Lore gallery. The exhibit features new photography by Yuri Marder, Bob Holman‘s Khonsay video w/mural by… Continue reading Mother Tongues: Endangered Languages in NYC and Beyond

Please come to a special free event in honor of our new PBS documentary  Language Matters with Bob Holman a film by David Grubin. Wednesday, Jan 21, 2015 at 6:00 pm at the National Museum of the American Indian in NYC, 1 Bowling Green The event will feature poets, performers, excerpts from the film, a Q&A… Continue reading Language Matters event tonight!

“LANGUAGE MATTERS WITH BOB HOLMAN” TO AIR ON PBS JANUARY 25th, 2015 at 12:30 PM in NYC where will meanings be when the words are forgotten – WS Merwin New York—There are over 6,000 languages remaining in the world. We lose one every two weeks. Hundreds will be lost within the next generation. By the end of… Continue reading Language Matters with Bob Holman

Our friends Kalvin Hartwig (Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa) and Manuel Ibanez are working on a short film entitled “This Is Who I Am”, about a young Ojibwe woman seeking to reconnect to her language and culture in the big city. Please read their message below and consider donating to the project. Help support Indigenous Youth… Continue reading “This is who I am” film project

For the seventh installment of Unheard of!, the Endangered Language Alliance, Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders and Bowery Arts & Science present poetry in indigenous languages of Mexico. Mexico is a major center of linguistic diversity. The Mexican government officially recognizes 68 indigenous language groups, and each of these groups counts a large number… Continue reading Unheard of 7! Indigenous Languages of Mexico

For the sixth installment of Unheard of!, the Endangered Language Alliance presents sacred and secular song in Jewish languages. Modern and traditional Ladino music by singer/songwriter Sarah Aroeste. Tracing her Sephardic ancestry from the United States to Salonika and ultimately to Spain, Aroeste is a leading figure in the revitalization of Judeo-Iberian music. She sings… Continue reading Unheard of! VI: Sacred and secular song in Jewish languages

The Endangered Language Alliance presents the 4th installment of our series Unheard of! featuring the languages of the Himalayas! Located at the intersection of Bhutan, India, Nepal, China and Pakistan, the Himalayas are a region of intense linguistic and cultural diversity. New York is a center of the Himalayan diaspora, adding languages like Sherpa, Tibetan and Gurung… Continue reading Feb 2: Unheard Of! Part IV: Himalayan NY

Over the summer, René González Pizarro visited the ELA office in Manhattan. He’s originally from Jokypäjkm (Ascunción Cacalotepec) in the Mixe Region of Oaxaca and currently works at CEDELIO (Centro de Estudios y Desarollo de las Lenguas Indígenas de Oaxaca). During that initial visit ELA recorded a few videos of him speaking about his work,… Continue reading tu’uk aa mäjtsk aa: a few words in Mixe

After a grueling many-month battle with Adobe InDesign, Kalvin Hartwig emerges victorious with his 2014 Anishinaabemowin calendar. The calendar was made at the request of Kalvin’s Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. We hope it serves them well! For others who may want to learn the days, months and holidays in Anishinaabemowin (also known… Continue reading 2014, the Anishinaabemowin way

Click Here to visit the Brown Paper Tickets event page. We are very excited to announce a special installment of Unheard Of! about the Mobilian Trade Language. Musician and historian GrayHawk Perkins will present a lecture on the Mobilian Trade Language, followed by a performance with the Mezcal Jazz Unit in a collaboration entitled “Thirteen… Continue reading Unheard of! Part V: Thirteen Moons and the Mobilian Trade Language

Another year comes to an end. Please have a look at our NEWSLETTER for some of ELA’s accomplishments in 2013 and dreams for 2014. We hope we can count on your support as we continue to create new documentation, new tools and new linguists while fighting to bring marginalized languages to the fore! Wishing you a… Continue reading 2013: the year in review

The Endangered Language Alliance presents the 3rd installment of Unheard of! featuring the Celtic languages of Brittany and Ireland. Unheard of! presents presents live readings of poetry and oral literature, both traditional and modern, by native speakers with simultaneous projections of texts and translations. Breton writer Matyas LeBrun will present his newest work Douar Neizh… Continue reading DEC 15th: Unheard of! Pt. 3 – Breton & Irish

Our second installment of the Unheard Of! series will take place November 17th and focus on the Pamir region of Tajikistan and Northeast Pakistan. The Pamiri languages belong to the Iranic group but are only distantly related to Persian. They are increasingly marginalized as younger people begin to shift to Russian, Tajik and, in Pakistan,… Continue reading Unheard Of! Part II – The Pamirs

A nice piece by reporter Bruce Wallace on the first installment of Unheard Of! appeared today: https://pri.org/stories/2013-10-10/when-new-yorker-rose-monintja-speaks-her-native-tongue-memories-flood-back Many thanks to everyone who helped make pt. 1 a reality, especially all of our beautiful readers. Stay posted for the videos!  

Sitting in one of the global centers of power, influence and immigration, we have the unique opportunity to put unjustly marginalized languages in the spotlight. Unheard Of! presents live readings of poetry and oral literature, both traditional and modern, by native speakers with simultaneous projections of texts and translations. The presentations employ theatre, music and… Continue reading UNHEARD OF! – Pt. 1 Indonesia

Come check out Brittany-based Kan ha diskan singers, Armel an Hejer and Alain Le Clere in a unique collaborative project with Garifuna musician James Lovell and his group to blend two distinct and endangered musical traditions! Sept. 27th Connolly’s “Klub45” 7pm (121 W 45th street) Sept. 28th-29th: Free performances at Taste of France at Bryant Park. … Continue reading Breton – Garifuna collaboration, Sept 27th-29th!

We have two exciting events this Saturday, May 4th, on the Lower East Side: Forget about death panels and come listen to our revitalization panel at the PEN World Voices festival! Panel on Revitalizing Endangered Languages at the PEN Festival On the same day, we will be taking New York’s linguistic pulse at Sarah Roosevelt… Continue reading Record-a-thon + Revitalization Panel!

7pm-12am at Duane Park on 308 Bowery (between Houston & 1st street $10 cover) The cultures of Brittany and Garifuna meet in a special evening of poetry, dance and musical exchange between the musicians and dancers of bagad and cercle with musicians and dancers of the vibrant community of Garifuna living in NYC. Garifuna language, music,… Continue reading Breton-Garifuna Cultural Exchange – March 18th

A happy 2013 to all! We are happy to announce Rebirth of a Culture, our first fundraising event of the year for YUGACURE the Garifuna program on St. Vincent. The event will be held at 3:00 PM on Saturday, Jan. 12th, 2013 right next to ELA’s office on 3 W 18th st, NYC. We will probably… Continue reading Rebirth of a Culture fundraiser

Happy Holidays, beloved supporters! As we quickly approach our goal of uploading 100 videos from the summer workshop in Timor, I’d like to share one musical segment we recorded with Mama Nona and Pak Paul in the Rikou language (captions forthcoming). More to follow!

As we approach the end of 2012, ELA would like to express our utmost gratitude to our collaborators and supporters without whom our work would not be possible.  If you are fortunate enough to be able to make an end of the year contribution, please consider supporting our Garifuna summer program, our Meso-American New York… Continue reading 2012 comes to an end

ELA on NPR today:

Over the last few months we have been working together with Intercultural Productions to produce Meso-American New York, a 3-part series on indigenous Mexicans in New York and the languages they speak. We have currently finished filming one third (see trailer below) and are raising money for completion. Please consider helping us with a tax-deductible donation for this project… Continue reading Support our latest media efforts!

ELA will be presenting our work with indigenous Mexican communities in New York at… Thanks to the Institute of Mexican Studies for putting on a successful event. Below, Daniel demonstrates just how different Mexican languages are from each other with a basic vocabulary list in Amuzgo, Totonac, Nahuatl and Mixtec.

Endangered Language Fair The Endangered Language Alliance, the Ethnic Services Round Table of the New York Library Association and the New York Public Library join forces to raise awareness about minority languages in danger. Attendees will learn why endangered languages matter and what efforts are being made to preserve them, besides hearing about several languages… Continue reading EL Fair – Sept. 29th @ NYPL

Please come see us at the Endangered Language Fair at the Berger Forum in the New York Public Library on 5th avenue between 42nd and 43rd st. We will be featuring videos, lectures and musical performances from  10:30 AM to 5:00 PM. ELA director Daniel Kaufman will be giving the opening talk at 10:30 and… Continue reading Endangered Language Fair at the NYPL

ELA is happy to announce our participation in a freshly launched initiative focused on endangered languages and backed by the Alliance for Linguistic Diversity. The site  will offer information on and recordings and other primary data in endangered languages, as well as ideas on how to help maintain these languages. It will also allow experts and laypeople a larger… Continue reading www.endangeredlanguages.com

Next month, our friends, James Lovell and Eleanor Bullock will be conducting a Garifuna language and culture workshop for children on the ancestral homeland of the Garinagu, St. Vincent. The first workshop, last summer, was very well received and the children of St. Vincent are now eagerly awaiting their return. James, Eleanor and Trish St.… Continue reading Help our friends

It has been a hectic few weeks. The revitalization symposium was a success, featuring really great speakers in addition to some very powerful performances by the Māori contingent. ELA was a proud “little sibling” among the other sponsors, CUNY, AUT and the Smithsonian Museum for the American Indian. We are very much looking forward to… Continue reading A great month

ELA is proud to cohost: Language Revitalization in the 21st Century , May 31 – June 1. If you are unable to register, we hope that you will at least be able to join us for the free Thursday evening + Friday programs at the Museum of American Indian. See you there!

Please join us on Feb. 11, 2012, 6:00 -7:30PM @ the Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery between Bleecker and Houston, NYC) for an evening of music, dance, poetry, food and drink in support of endangered languages at home and abroad! We will be presenting some of our recent work and updating everyone on what’s to come.

Please join us at the Margaret Mead Film Festival on Nov 12 to watch a great new film on Jesse Littledoe’s (MacArthur grant winning) work on the revitalization of the Wampanoag language. Hope to see you all there! We Still Live Here (Âs Natayuneân) Anne Makepeace 2010 · 56 min · United States Filmmaker in Person… Continue reading Language film @ the Margaret Mead Film Festival

INVITATION SUMMER ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING You are invited to ELA’s second annual Summer meeting Learn about our summer projects and how you can get involved! All languages welcome! Spread culture! Tell your story! Saturday, June 4th, 2011 3:00-5:00 PM at the Bowery Poetry Club 308 Bowery (Between Houston and Bleecker) New York City https://www.bowerypoetry.com

Since February 3rd, Daniel Kaufman has been leading a workshop on language documentation and description at the Cuny Graduate Center every Thursday from 5-7pm. This workshop is free and open to the public, but will be best geared to: i) anyone with an interest in linguistics and in conserving their own language or that of… Continue reading Language documentation and description workshop

Dear friends of ELA, First of all, allow us to wish all of you the Happiest of Gregorian (not to mention Julian) New Years! We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your continued support as well as to give all of you a very brief summary of what we… Continue reading Happy New Year

Date and Time: Monday, October 4th, 2010, 6:30-8:30pm – CUNY Graduate Center on 365 Fifth Avenue between 34th and 35th street, Room 9207 Archiving for the future, today: the Endangered Languages Archive at SOAS David Nathan ELAR, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Language documentations and the archives that hold them are valuable sources of… Continue reading David Nathan Talk

The second town meeting of the ELA was held successfully last Saturday at the Bowery Poetry Club. The transactions are briefly summarized here for those who were unable to make it. We discussed the broader goals of the language survey portion of our summer project and several groups spoke about their experiences searching out languages… Continue reading Second town meeting