In Language City， the linguist Ross Perlin chronicles some of the precious traditions hanging on in the world’s most linguistically diverse metropolis.

在《语言之城》一书中，语言学家罗斯·佩林记录了在世界上语言最多元化的大都市中保留下来的一些珍贵传统。

“Up on the sixth floor of an old commercial building along the sunless canyon1 of 18th Street， there is a room where languages from all over the world converge.” It makes sense that the Endangered Language Alliance， the only organization in the world focused on “the linguistic diversity of cities，” lives here， in a donated office in the most linguistically diverse metropolis on earth. It is also here that Ross Perlin begins Language City， his gorgeous new narrative of New York， as told through the hundreds of languages spoken in its five boroughs.

“两边高楼耸立的第18街照不到阳光，临街一栋老旧商业大楼的6层有一个房间，那里汇集了来自世界各地的语言。”濒危语言联盟是全世界唯一聚焦于“城市语言多样性”的组织，驻扎在地球上语言最多元化的大都市中一间捐赠的办公室里——这不无道理。也正是在这个房间里，罗斯·佩林动笔写就《语言之城》。在这本书中，他通过纽约5个区的数百种语言，从崭新的视角对纽约展开了宏大的叙事。

On any given day， the E.L.A.’s cramped office bursts with people singing in Bishnupriya Manipuri （originally from Bangladesh）， writing in Tsou （Taiwan， China） and recording in Ikota （Gabon）. A caller from the Bronx， with a voice “full of longing，” seeks recordings of the language he left at the Mali-Burkina Faso border when he was 7.

联盟狭小的办公室里，每天都挤满了用毗湿奴布里亚-曼尼普尔语（源自孟加拉国）唱歌的人，用邹语（中国台湾）写作的人，还有用科塔语（加蓬）录音的人。一通电话从布朗克斯区打来，对方用“充满渴望”的声音，询问能否找到他7岁那年在马里-布基纳法索边境留下的语言录音。

Perlin， the co-director of the E.L.A. and an accomplished linguist himself， explains that up to half of the world’s 7，000 languages are likely to die over the next few centuries. But his book is less a lament for the deaths of endangered languages than an account of how， like their speakers， they have built new lives in a place where half the residents speak a language other than English at home.

佩林不仅是濒危语言联盟的联合主席，也是一名颇有建树的语言学家。他解释道，世界上有7000种语言，其中多达一半的语言很可能会在接下来的几百年间消亡。但他的《语言之城》与其说是对濒危语言消亡的哀叹，不如说是一份记录——记录濒危语言如何像它们的使用者那样，在一个半数居民在家不说英语的地方焕发新的活力。

Perlin retells the familiar story of the city through the lens of its exceptional linguistic history， beginning with Indigenous languages like Lenape （in which Manaháhtaan means “the place where we get bows”）. Early settlers included the first 32 Walloon2 families to live permanently in New Amsterdam3 and enslaved Kikongo speakers from the Kingdom of the Kongo4.

佩林以独特的语言史视角，从莱纳佩语（曼哈顿得名自这种语言，名字的原义为“我们得到弓的地方”）等原住民语言写起，重述了人们耳熟能详的纽约故事。