Forging a Future for Languages

Founded in 2010, the Endangered Language Alliance (ELA) is a non-profit dedicated to documenting Indigenous, minority, and endangered languages, supporting linguistic diversity in New York City and beyond.

Featured Story

Featured Story
Language City

A portrait of contemporary New York City, the most linguistically diverse city in history, through six speakers of little-known and overlooked languages

Featured Language

Featured Language
Seke

One of an estimated 140 indigenous languages of Nepal, Seke is mainly spoken in the five villages in the Upper Mustang district, near the Tibetan border—as well as in the cities of Pokhara, Kathmandu, and New York.

ELA at a Glance

Introducing ELA

Recent Updates

ELA in the NY Times

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…

LANGUAGE CITY events

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…