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
2024: A Year of Languages
This year we did a bit of everything: a book, a play, a summer program, a huge range of events for different audiences, and—as always—ongoing original research with languages and communities from around the world. Worldwide, it was a year dominated by consequential elections and questions of migration, mobility, and culture. As the only organization…
The future of linguistic diversity in America
What is the future of linguistic diversity in America? Today it is more uncertain than ever. This land is home to hundreds of Native languages and has received hundreds more through immigration—nowhere more so than in ELA’s home of New York City—but very few of those languages are assured a future here. Language shift and…