Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York
by Ross Perlin
"Will cities just be last-minute outposts for endangered
languages, or can they become sustainable sites for linguistic diversity?”
“We won’t all learn to speak each other’s languages, but a
few words can go a long way, and at a minimum we need to grow familiar and comfortable
with hearing them all the time”
Major thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for providing
me with an advanced copy of Columbia linguist Ross Perlin’s passionate and
detailed study of the linguistic diversity of New York City titled LanguageCity: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York. Perlin
applies his expertise in linguistics and documents his work with the Endangered
Language Alliance (ELA) to share the incredibly diversity of NYC, as well as to
call attention to the need to preserve many of the endangered languages that
are a part of smaller communities in the 5 boroughs and surrounding areas. This
was a great book in many different ways. Perlin begins by discussing his own
background as a multilingual speaker, discussing his experiences learning Yiddish
from his family and studying Chinese in Beijing. One of the speakers he
profiles later, Boris, is a Yiddish speaker and writer, and Perlin uses his own
experience to challenge the ideas that Yiddish is a form of broken English or a
dialect, presenting grammatical rules and a body of literature to define its linguistic
existence, however, precarious. However, it was in China where he learned about
the Trung language, spoken in a rural area at least a day’s journey from Beijing,
detailing how Trung is related to several different languages in the surrounding
area. As Perlin notes, Trung has no teachers, dictionaries, or other learning
materials, so the only way to learn the language was to live among the people.
It is here where he learned the field methods of building relationships,
documenting, and creating his own materials for preserving and potentially
teaching the language to others by borrowing methods from anthropology. This
also sets up much of his ethnographic reporting of his work with the 5 speakers
who worked with the ELA . The book also provides a great description of NYC,
especially focused on Queens, from the linguistic lens to demonstrate its
incredible diversity. I loved thinking about NYC from this perspective and
learning more about the history of different immigrant groups. Perlin also
provides some background on many different languages and how languages act almost
as organisms which mutate based on their location and social standing, among
other factors (including technology). This was fascinating and helps us
understand how these endangered languages both languish and persevere through
the efforts of the speakers from the ELA. Perlin details the work of 5
individuals, all multilingual speakers of these languages. It was fascinating
to learn about their languages and their stories, immigrating to America, and
then looking to preserve their native language. It’s hard to say which story is
the best since all of the speakers have amazing stories. For example, Rasmina,
a speaker of Seke, a Himalayan language from Nepal, documents her work to share
Seke, and how Perlin traveled to her village to record other Seke speakers. Husniya,
a speaker of Wakhi, was originally from a village between Tajikstan, Pakistan,
Afghanistan, and China, and amazingly, she moved to America, studied and worked
as a teacher, and eventually became a realtor. Yet, she still found time to
work with the ELA to document and preserve Wakhi. Like Rasmina and Husniya, the
other speakers (Boris -Yiddish, Ibrahima -N’ko, Irwin- Nahuatl, and Karen-Lunaape
(or Lenape) experienced various forms of migration and/or land loss. Some
experienced tragedy and rapid political change or war in their homelands,
forcing migration. Others experienced a kind of stigmatization from the status
of their language and culture, which is something that Perlin also explores—the
nature of privileging certain languages, especially written languages, over
others. Yet, all of these individuals are incredibly persistent and energetic
about preserving and sharing their language and culture. I loved learning about
the different aspects of their culture. Reading about Irwin’s culinary
connections to Nahuatl not only took me back to swimming in a cenote and visiting
Chichen Itza, but also made me crave authentic Mexican food. I also did not
realize the extent of indigenous languages in Mexico (as well as some of the
other regions explored in the book) and how these languages have contributed to
the Spanish spoken in Mexico. Just looking at certain regions, especially in
the Yucatan, I could see how influential indigenous languages like Nahuatl are.
As someone who has taught English to speakers of other languages, I can
appreciate the significance of maintaining a native language; I frequently
tried to use L1 as a reference point for learning. However, Perlin makes a
strong case for how important it is to maintain a native language, and how
cities like NY can help in the efforts. The patterns of migrations and neighborhoods
that frequently maintain a regional or cultural group can serve as an nexus. It’s
also important to our culture and history to work to maintain these, and Perlin
rightly points how recent social and health challenges like COVID have limited
migration, which in turn can put these languages at risk. This was an
incredible book that documents the work of incredible people, as well as
highlighting the important connections between language, culture and identity.
I loved learning about the ELA, as well as the different languages and cultures
featured throughout the book. Despite seeming like an academic/ethnographic
study of the fight to preserve various languages, Perlin has written a highly
engaging and personal story, often making complex academic/linguistic topics
understandable and relatable.
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