Featured Story
New work on Ashkun (Nuristani)
Since this summer, an ELA team has been working closely and consistently with a young Afghani refugee from the remote Nuristan region
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 Language
Judeo-Spanish
Judeo-Spanish (widely known as Ladino), based on Old Spanish but later accruing influences from Greek, Turkish, Arabic, French, and other languages, was the principal language of Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 who settled principally in the Ottoman Empire and part of northern Morocco and then spread around the globe.
ELA at a Glance
10 Projects
With ten current larger-scale projects and additional work on individual languages, ELA focuses on communities and individuals in the New York City area.
42 Languages
ELA has worked to different degrees on numerous projects with speakers of over a hundred languages spoken in New York City and beyond. More in-depth work continues on the several dozen featured here.
1 Mission
ELA's network is an extended family of linguists, language activists, community leaders, students, volunteers, and lovers of language in NYC and the world over.
Introducing ELA
Recent Updates
Un mensaje de ELA
Ayer, Trump firmó una orden ejecutiva que convierte al inglés en el único idioma oficial de Estados Unidos, blanco de esfuerzos de lobby por parte de organizaciones antiinmigración durante décadas. Es un acto retrógrado que no hace nada para promover la comunicación, sino que sólo busca amordazarla, al revocar la Orden Ejecutiva 13166 del año…
A Message from ELA
Yesterday, Trump signed an executive order making English the sole official language of the United States, a target of lobbying efforts on the part of anti-immigration organizations for decades. It is a retrograde act that does nothing to promote communication but rather only seeks to muzzle it, by revoking the 25 year old Executive Order…