New York Speaks: Saving Dying Tongues

New York is a city of many languages. Some experts call New York City the language capital of the world: walk around on its streets, and you’ll hear some of the over 800 languages spoken by New Yorkers. 

But some of these languages are threatened with extinction. A third of the world’s languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers left, according to Ethnologue. These endangered languages are defined by a decrease in speakers, a lack of transmission from generation to generation, and a host of other factors. 

Safida Ms. Begum speaks Wakhi. It’s an endangered language with Persian roots. Ms. Begum said speaking Wakhi is important in maintaining her culture. 

“It’s your identity. You are known because of that [language],” said Safida. “And it’s a very unique and interesting culture. It’s not just only in the northern part of Pakistan. It has international connections.” 

Safida is one of those international connections. She’s from Gilgit-Balistan, the northernmost territory in Pakistan and close to the Chinese border. Ms. Begum immigrated to the Untied States in 2010, and said she has made a life for herself here as a teacher in New York City. She said she has opportunities to speak and maintain Wakhi here with other speakers. 

The Endangered Language Alliance (ELA) is a nonprofit that works to study and document endangered languages. They say Wakhi is endangered because it’s spoken less frequently where the Wakhi are a minority, like Tajikistan. 

Daniel Kaufman, Ph.D., is a linguistics professor with the City University of New York and founder of the ELA. There is no written form of Wakhi, but Kaufman is working to develop one. He said writing Wakhi down can help preserve the language. 

Dr. Kaufman said preserving languages is important from a both scientific perspective, and a cultural perspective. 

“Another thing we’re interested in is the stories and the folk tales and oral literature and people’s personal narratives s well of coming to America and the struggles they face,” said Dr. Kaufman. 

Ms. Begum says music is an effective tool to keep her language alive. She said kids love it, and hope they’ll learn it and pass it on to their children.

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