Over the past year, ELA continued its mission to document linguistic diversity both in our hometown of New York City, a global language capital, and around the world. We partnered with government agencies, high schools, museums, community groups, language activists and Google to support dozens of languages from five continents. In January, we launched a new hyper-multilingual…
Working with communities on their languages is about more than just figuring out how the verbs work. Speakers of minority and endangered languages are marginalized both around the world and in New York City, with little access to the services that majority groups take for granted. That’s why, earlier this year, ELA started working with…
New York City may be the most linguistically diverse place in the world, but that diversity began with Lunaape (also called Lenape or Delaware), a Native American language of the Algonquian family. Today, Lunaape is being revitalized in communities in Canada, Oklahoma, and elsewhere. ELA is honored to host classes taught by Karen Hunter, who…
We’re excited to announce that we’re partnering with Google Cultural Institute to launch online exhibits of some of our projects. Through this new platform, we can bring even more photos, videos, audio, and information to you in a format that’s made to feel as if you’re exploring an exhibit at a museum. Below is a preview of our…
ELA is proud to announce a new series of videos —“¡Conozca sus derechos!” (Know your rights!) — that respond to the new threats that immigrants and refugee communities are facing. Now more than ever, it’s vital that speakers of endangered languages know their rights and aren’t left out of the conversation. Our first four videos are in Nahuatl, Ki’che’, Totonac,…
As is plain to see, it has been a tumultuous few weeks here in New York City. We take this opportunity to stand with the many other non-profit organizations, institutions and individuals around the country who have expressed their shock and dismay at recent events. We will repeat what has already been declared so many…