April 10 | 6:30pm | 12 Fulton Street | Free
Join the Seaport Museum and Ross Perlin, linguist and co-director of the non-profit Endangered Language Alliance, for a unique look at the linguistic diversity of New York City as explored in his new book, Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York.
In this program, Perlin will share his race against time to map little-known languages across New York and will present a portrait of contemporary New York illustrated through six speakers of little-known and overlooked languages deep in their communities, from the streets of Brooklyn and Queens to villages on the other side of the world. He explores the languages themselves, from rare sounds to sentence-long words to bits of grammar that encode entirely different worldviews.
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 is raising the alarm about growing political threats and the onslaught of “killer languages” like English and Spanish.
Advanced registration is suggested for this free event but walkups will be accommodated as possible. A Q&A and reception with complimentary beverages will follow. Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York, will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
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About the Speaker
Ross Perlin is a linguist, writer, and translator focused on exploring and supporting linguistic diversity. His book Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York is out this year from Grove. Since 2013 he has been Co-Director of the Endangered Language Alliance, managing research projects on mapmaking, documentation, policy, and public programming for urban linguistic diversity. He also teaches linguistics at Columbia. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Harper’s, and elsewhere, and his first book Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy ignited a national conversation about unpaid work.
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