LEADER 00000cam  22004938i 4500 
001    on1391434890 
003    OCoLC 
005    20240221163952.0 
008    231020s2024    nyu    e b    000 0 eng   
010      2023044136 
020    9780802162465|q(hardcover) 
020    0802162460|q(hardcover) 
020    |z9780802162472|q(ebook) 
035    (OCoLC)1391434890 
040    DLC|beng|erda|cDLC|dOCLCO|dHSA|dGL4|dUAP|dRNL|dOCLCO|dWHP 
042    pcc 
043    n-us-ny 
049    WHPP 
050 00 P40.5.L562|bU674 2024 
082 00 306.44/09747/1|223/eng/20231204 
100 1  Perlin, Ross,|eauthor. 
245 10 Language city :|bthe fight to preserve endangered mother 
       tongues in New York /|cRoss Perlin. 
250    First edition. 
250    First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition. 
263    2402 
264  1 New York :|bAtlantic Monthly Press,|c2024. 
300    xv, 415 pages ;|c24 cm 
336    text|btxt|2rdacontent 
337    unmediated|bn|2rdamedia 
338    volume|bnc|2rdacarrier 
504    Includes bibliographical references (pages 359-415). 
505 0  Preface: The limits of my language -- Thousands of natural
       experiments -- Past -- Present -- Future -- 
       Acknowledgments -- A note on sources -- Notes. 
520    "From the co-director of the Endangered Language Alliance,
       a captivating portrait of contemporary New York City 
       through six speakers of little-known and overlooked 
       languages, diving into the incredible history of the most 
       linguistically diverse place ever to have existed on the 
       planet. Half of all 7,000-plus human languages may 
       disappear over the next century and--because many have 
       never been recorded--when they're gone, it will be 
       forever. Ross Perlin, a linguist and co-director of the 
       Manhattan-based non-profit Endangered Language Alliance, 
       is racing against time to map little-known languages 
       across the most linguistically diverse city in history: 
       contemporary New York. In Language City, Perlin recounts 
       the unique history of immigration that shaped the city, 
       and follows six remarkable yet ordinary speakers of 
       endangered languages deep into their communities to learn 
       how they are maintaining and reviving their languages 
       against overwhelming odds. Perlin also dives deep into 
       their languages, taking us on a fascinating tour of 
       unusual grammars, rare sounds, and powerful cultural 
       histories from all around the world. Seke is spoken by 700
       people from five ancestral villages in Nepal, a hundred of
       whom have lived in a single Brooklyn apartment building. 
       N'ko is a radical new West African writing system now 
       going global in Harlem and the Bronx. After centuries of 
       colonization and displacement, Lenape, the city's original
       Indigenous language and the source of the name Manhattan 
       ("the place where we get bows"), has just one fluent 
       native speaker, bolstered by a small band of revivalists. 
       Also profiled in the book are speakers of the Indigenous 
       Mexican language Nahuatl, the Central Asian minority 
       language Wakhi, and the former lingua franca of the Lower 
       East Side, Yiddish. A century after the anti-immigration 
       Johnson-Reed Act closed America's doors for decades and on
       the 400th anniversary of New York's colonial founding, 
       Perlin raises the alarm about growing political threats 
       and the onslaught of "killer languages" like English and 
       Spanish. Both remarkable social history and testament to 
       the importance of linguistic diversity, Language City is a
       joyful and illuminating exploration of a city and the 
       world that made it"--|cProvided by publisher. 
650  0 Linguistic minorities|zNew York (State)|zNew York. 
650  0 Endangered languages|zNew York (State)|zNew York. 
650  0 Immigrants|zNew York (State)|zNew York|xLanguage. 
650  0 Language maintenance|zNew York (State)|zNew York. 
650  0 Language revival|zNew York (State)|zNew York. 
651  0 New York (N.Y.)|xLanguages. 
776 08 |iOnline version:|aPerlin, Ross.|tLanguage city.|bFirst 
       edition|dNew York : Atlantic Monthly Press, 2024
       |z9780802162472|w(DLC)  2023044137 
947    MARCIVE Processed 2024/05/08 
994    C0|bWHP