বাংলা
Bengali
Jamaica +2Today, there are more speakers of Bengali in NYC than there are of any other South Asian language. Beginning in the 1980s, Bangladeshis won slots in the visa lottery and started bringing their families and establishing growing communities throughout the five boroughs, while working largely in construction, in food service, and as cab drivers. While some Bengali-speaking New Yorkers are from the Indian state of West Bengal, the majority are Bangladeshi and may speak the distinctive Sylheti, Chittagonian, Noakhilla, Rangpuri, or Sandwippa varieties—and in a small number of cases, minority languages of Bangladesh from the north (e.g. Garo) or the Chittagong Hill Tracts (e.g. Chakma), or closer to the Indian border (e.g. Santali).
N
owhere in New York (or indeed in the US) is as quintessentially Bangladeshi as Queens, which is home to a tremendous variety of Bengali-speaking communities and institutions everywhere from Astoria (an earlier area of settlement) to Jamaica, Ozone Park, and beyond, with Jackson Heights one particularly visible hub in between.
Note that the language above may be used throughout the New York area — this is just one significant site.