Urgent Efforts Continue to Safeguard Seke, A Fragile Language in New York City's Multilingual Landscape

New York City remains a dynamic center of global communication, boasting an estimated 700 distinct languages spoken across its five boroughs. Among these linguistic threads, Seke, a language originating from the northern region of Nepal, represents a particularly vulnerable component of this diversity. The stakes in its preservation extend beyond mere vocabulary; they involve safeguarding entire worldviews and ancestral heritage embedded within the language's structure.

The global community of Seke speakers is estimated to be around 700 individuals. A significant concentration of this population—approximately 100 speakers, according to earlier reports, or potentially 150 in two buildings—has established a foothold in New York, with a notable cluster residing in Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood. This geographic proximity within a single residential building has historically served as a crucial, albeit fragile, anchor for the language amidst the pressures of urban life and diaspora. Speakers of related Himalayan languages, such as Baragaun and Loke, also reside in the city, often in proximity to the Seke community in areas like Flatbush and Queens' Jackson Heights.

The Endangered Language Alliance (ELA), established in 2010, actively functions as a chronicler and guardian for vulnerable languages like Seke. This non-profit organization is dedicated to the meticulous documentation and safeguarding of indigenous and minority languages within New York and globally. The ELA's ongoing mapping project continues to chart the city's profound linguistic geography, having previously visualized over 700 linguistic varieties across more than 1,200 key sites. Furthermore, ELA collaborators, including Seke heritage speaker Rasmina Gurung, have been actively documenting the language, even presenting findings at international conferences in 2025 regarding the complex realities of language maintenance in diaspora communities.

Beyond cataloging, the ELA champions the future of these languages through proactive engagement. They facilitate educational programs, workshops, and seminars aimed at raising public awareness about the urgency of language preservation. These initiatives also focus on equipping community members with the necessary skills for linguistic documentation and revitalization efforts, empowering those closest to the language to become its most effective stewards. The continuation of this documentation work in 2025 is fundamental, as research into similar small-speaker communities underscores that long-term sustainability relies on intergenerational transmission and integration into digital resources, bridging the gap between the intimate shared space and the wider world.