Gastvortrag Dr. Ross Perlin (Endangered Language Alliance / Columbia University)Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York and Beyond

26. November 2025, 10:15 Uhr

Foto: Ralph Fasanella New York City, 1957 as Courtesy of the Estate of Ralph Fasanella

Raum ESA W 120

Contemporary cities are the most linguistically diverse in history, even as an estimated half of the world's 7000-plus languages are endangered. In contemporary New York City, the Endangered Language Alliance (ELA) has mapped over 700 of those languages, including many that are indigenous, primarily oral, and little documented. Driven by new forms of mobility, migration, and the diasporization of nearly every ethnolinguistic group, many other diverse cities around the world are not far behind. In this talk, Ross Perlin, ELA’s co-director and author of the recent book Language City, will describe New York's complex linguistic history and ELA’s efforts over the last 15 years, before panning out to discuss the impact of migration, diaspora, and multilingualism on urban linguistic diversity more generally, with a range of political, economic, social, and cultural implications.

Organisation:

Prof. Dr. Luigi Andriani: luigi.andriani"AT"uni-hamburg.de

Prof. Dr. Edyta Jurkiewicz-Rohrbacher: edyta.jurkiewicz-rohrbacher"AT"uni-hamburg.de