Globalization and Languages in New York City: A Case Study
“We seldom ask why we speak the language that we do, what we have in common with
its other speakers, what its pedigree and career tell us about our ancestors, or what
particular ways it has of framing our perceptions of the world. Perhaps we should.”1
The answer to this question is complicated for one language, as Henry Hitchings
suggests in his book The Secret Life of Words. It would be even more difficult to answer
for the many languages and the varieties of English spoken in New York City. To
understand today’s New York City linguistically, it is important to go back to its colonial
beginnings since then and now, New York City’s languages are at the heart of a rapidly
globalizing world. In fact, the Dutch and the English colonies set the stage for today’s
city, which many consider to be the multilingual capital of the world. Beginning with
Dutch New Amsterdam, New York’s population was more diverse than that of other
settlements in the New World. Diversity continued to grow under British rule and has
reached new heights today. In its diversity and languages, the city reflected and continues
to reflect most intensely, economic, social and political events in most of the world.
New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam was a trading post/settlement, governed by the Dutch West India
Company, a branch of the very profitable global Dutch East India Company. At the
height of Anglo-Dutch competition for dominance of world trade and international
supremacy, the Dutch West India Company was formed especially to manage the
1
Hitchins, Henry. The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English. New York: Picador, 2009p. 3
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establishment of New Netherland. With New Amsterdam at its capital, New Netherland
was settled by the multilingual employees of an international business, a very different
place from the English, Portuguese, Spanish and French colonies in the New World. The
Netherlands had won their freedom from Spain and had begun to form their republic, a
unique phenomenon in 17th century Europe. The Dutch were therefore keen on
establishing a colony which would be in sharp contrast to the colonies of Spain, where
native peoples were exploited and received cruel treatment.2 The Dutch West India
Company gave clear instructions to the first provisional governor of New Netherland,
Willem Verhulst: “He shall also see that no one do the Indians any harm or violence,
deceive, mock, or contemn them in any way, but that in addition to good treatment they
be shown honesty, faithfulness, and sincerity in all contracts, dealings, and intercourse,
without being deceived by shortage of measure, weight or number, and that throughout
friendly relations with them be maintained.”3
It is this spirit of tolerance, relative tolerance by today’s standards, but very
unusual for a time when most of Europe was ruled by powerful monarchs and torn by
violent religious conflicts, that encouraged the first settlers to sign up with the Dutch
West India Company. They were asked to swear allegiance to the company and the
Netherlands and in exchange, after six years of work, the company promised them land.
The settlers in the1624 group were unusual in another way; the majority of them were not
Dutch. Of the 110 people, thirty families were French-speaking Walloons. 4 The others
2
Shorto, Russell. The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten
Colony that Shaped America. New York: Vintage Books, 2004, p. 38.
3
Ibid., 47.
4
Burns, Ric. New York: an Illustrated History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999, 2003, p. 9.
2
represented most of Europe as Dutch cities were receiving diverse populations seeking
freedom from persecution. The colony reflected this diversity, particularly because
relatively few Dutch nationals were interested in leaving their comfortable, newly
prosperous homeland. In 1638, Father Jogues, the first Catholic priest to visit New
Amsterdam, noted: “On the island of Manhate, and its environs, there may well be four or
five hundred men of different sects and nations: The Director General told me that there
were men of eighteen different languages.”5
In addition to the numerous European languages, there were in New Amsterdam,
more than a dozen Eastern Algonquian languages as well as languages like Mohawk,
belonging to the Iriquois groups. Munsee and Lenape were the major languages in the
Manhattan area. To these would be added the numerous languages of African slaves who
were brought to the colony shortly after it was established. Mundu and Kongo were
predominant African languages in the Dutch colony.6 Judging from their surnames, it is
likely that many slaves were brought from Portuguese or other Atlantic colonies and may
have been speakers of “creoles”, a combination of European and African languages.
Portuguese and Spanish creoles were most prevalent as they reflected the declining world
powers, Spain and Portugal. There was also a speaker of Arabic, Anthony Jensen van
Salee, a free-born man from Morocco who was a Muslim and must have been of darker skin as
the settlers called him the “black Turk.” 7
5
Quoted in Garcia and Fishman, p. 3.
The African Burial Ground Final Reports, 2007.
http://www.africanburialground.gov/FinalReports/ABG_HistoryReportFinal.pdf, p13-14.
6
7
Berlin, ed. Ira and Harris, Leslie M. Slavery in New York. New York: The New Press, 2005, p. 41.
3
To this mix, and against the protests and prejudices of Peter Stuyvesant, would be
added a group of Jewish settlers fleeing persecution in Brazil. They spoke Portuguese but
practiced their religion in Hebrew. Against Stuyvesant’s request, the directors of the
Dutch West India Company maintained their policy: “The consciences of men ought to
be free and unshackled, so long as they continue moderate, peaceable, inoffensive and not
hostile to government. Such have been the maxims of … toleration by which … this city
has been governed; and the result has been, that the oppressed and persecuted from every
country have found among us an asylum from distress.”8
Even English colonists who
had sought religious freedom in the New World were flocking to New Amsterdam,
fleeing, ironically, religious persecution in neighboring English colonies. 9 By the end of
Dutch rule, English speakers would comprise up to 20% of the total population of New
Amsterdam.
In short, the diversity of New Amsterdam’s inhabitants and their languages was
most impressive. They were “ a Babel of peoples – Norwegians, Germans, Italians, Jews,
Africans (slaves and free), Walloons, Bohemians, Munsees, Montauks, Mohawks, and
many others—all living on the rim of empire, struggling to find a way of being together,
searching for a balance between chaos and order, liberty and oppression. Pirates,
prostitutes, smugglers and business sharks held sway in it. It was Manhattan, in other
8
9
Burns: 2003: 15.
Shorto: 2004: 140.
4
words, right from the start: a place unlike any other, either in the North American
colonies or anywhere.” 10
The British Colony
The surrender of New Netherland to the British was one outcome of England’s
winning the competition for global economic and military supremacy. New Amsterdam
became New York in 1664, when Peter Stuyvesant, much against his will, accepted the
Articles of Capitulation. Not a single shot was fired; New Yorkers chose to go on with
business as usual. The new rulers of the colony quickly made agreements with the
powerful Dutch merchants. “ It has pleased the Lord that we must learn English, “
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concluded Jeremias Van Rensselaer and in the years that followed, the wealthy Dutch
spoke English, observed English holidays, attended social clubs and intermarried with the
English.12
The situation was different for those who were not part of the wealthy, influential
class. Five or six thousand of New York’s Dutch population, 70% of the colony and 75-80%
of the city, were unhappy with British rule which imposed new taxes and fees but made no
provisions for any representation. Culture clashes were exacerbated by constant grievances
against the behavior of English soldiers.13 After the brief recapture of New York by the
Dutch and its return to the British, the population of Dutch craftsmen, small traders and
farmers began to resist assimilation. Unlike the upper classes, they did not intermarry and
10
Ibid., 2
Burrows, Edwin G. and Wallace, Mike. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1999, pp. 78-79
12
Ibid., 79.
13
Ibid., 81-82.
11
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insisted on maintaining their Roman-Dutch legal tradition, refusing English Common Law.
The British retaliated by not allowing Dutch in New York courts in 1674, but this resulted in
a dramatic reduction of law suits among Dutch speakers.14
Continued discontent, class conflicts, changes in rule of England led to the Leisler
rebellion, an attempt to return the colony to Dutch rule which was suppressed in 1691,
ending in the torture and death of its leader, Jacob Leisler. The Judiciary Act of the same
year was designed to anglicize New York’s legal system completely.15 Anglicization
continued in other areas. New York was more closely connected to the other English colonies
through a regular post system, Long Island was renamed the Island of Nassau, the city
celebrated the King’s birthday, and the Governor hosted a ball for wealthy New Yorkers of
English descent.
Governor Fletcher continued the publicity campaign for English by inviting printer
William Bradford to New York. Bradford’s press established connections between New
Yorkers with British society and politics. Among the works printed in 1698, was Francis
Daniel Pastorius’ A New Primer, or Methodical Directions to Attain the True Spelling,
Reading and Writing of English. In 1710, the first American edition of the Anglican Book of
Common Prayer appeared, and in 1725, Bradford launched the weekly Gazette, the first New
York newspaper. Bradford printed official edicts, petitions, ordinances, all intended to
support the government. 16 Those who were uninformed or unable to read were simply left
out of the circles of power.
14
Ibid., 88-89.
Burrows: 1999: 101
16
Ibid., 108.
15
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In further efforts to erase Dutch rule, the Dutch Stadhuis was replaced by City Hall, not
far from another English symbol, Trinity Church. In fact, symbolically, City Hall was built of
stones from the wall Stuyvesant had built to keep the English out.17 Viscount Cornbury, the
next Governor, began to put pressure on the Dutch Reform Church by appointing Anglicans to
Dutch churches and by insisting on English-language schooling, to “make this Colony and
English Colony, which I am afraid will not easily be done without it.”18
In Anglicizing New York, the British had used everything they had learned in
fighting for the use of the English language back home. They knew they had to replace Dutch
not only in government, but in the courts and legal system, the schools, the churches and
through the use of the printing press, in all communications of importance. After all, they
themselves had been ruled by the French and had used Latin for legal matters a few
generations before becoming an English-speaking global power. What is of interest
linguistically is that in this process, the English language had acquired thousands of words
from French, Latin, German and many other languages of former conquerors of Britain,
including, once upon a time, the Dutch. The language had acquired much diversity in its
vocabulary as well as flexibility, making it adaptable to change.19 Furthermore, in the context
of 17th century globalization, “Dutch” and “English” are “clear, sometimes fierce,
counterpoints. So it’s mildly interesting, mildly amusing even, to note that in the earliest
written record of the word ‘Dutch,’ in 786, it is used to refer to English. […] the Dutch don’t
17
Ibid., 108-110.
Ibid., 115.
19
McCumber, 37, 63.
18
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use the word to refer to themselves (except of course when they are speaking English, which
is somehow a very Dutch thing to do.)”20
At the end of the colonial period, Dutch influences including the use of the language
in New York began to disappear. Native American languages declined significantly.
Multilingualism, however, the legacy of the original Dutch settlement, did not go away. It
was destined to increase and multiply as the British, like the Dutch, found it necessary to
have an open door immigration policy in order to attract settlers to the colony. As the British
gained control of the seas, their slave trade was diversified and speakers of new African
languages were brought to the City. Diversity continued to grow as New York became part of
the United States of America and it is at its peak in New York City today. Not only are so
many more languages spoken in New York City today, but there are speakers of languages
about to be extinct, of languages that have ceased to exist in their country of origin. Because
of the genocide, some languages from Darfour, for example, are only spoken in New York.21
There is an effort to preserve languages as well as to revive or revitalize languages,
including the native Lenape language. Locally, the Endangered Language Alliance of the
City University of New York, has been doing work in this area.22 UNESCO, the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, an agency of the United Nations,
is charged with the preservation of the world’s languages at the international level and has an
office in New York City.
20
Panetta, Roger. Dutch New York: The Roots of Hudson Valley Culture. New York: Hudson River
Museum/Fordham University Press, 2009. Foreword by Russel Shorto, p. vii.
21
Leonard Lopate August 17, 2010
http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2010/aug/17/preserving-endangered-languages
22
Ibid.
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We speak English in the United States and in New York City, but English is not the
official language of the country and linguists argue that standard English “has never been and
cannot be considered today, New York’s vernacular.”23 New Yorkers today speak more than
the 800 languages counted in the 2000 Census. They also speak “standard” English, and
because 36% of New Yorkers are foreign born, the English spoken by the immigrants in New
York is closer to the language Jean-Plaul Nerrière called “Globish.” “Globish” is the English
used to communicate in international business by native speakers of different languages.
According to Robert McCrum, who has written a book by this name, “Globish” encompasses
the many forms of English spoken by one third or 4 billion people in different parts of the
planet; it is used not only as a “ lingua franca24 but also as a metaphor for global English
culture.”25
We don’t often ask why we speak a language or languages in New York City; we just
do. Is it because of the Englishman, Henry Hudson, who sailed for the Dutch who claimed
the land for them? Is it because of the multilingual settlers and employees of an international
Dutch company or the policies of the British and later American New Yorkers? Why has
New York City continued and is continuing to be multilingual as well as English and Globish
speaking? Could it be that since its New Amsterdam days, New York has become and
remains the center of and a reflection of globalization? The complete answer to Henry
Hitchings’ question for New York poses new questions and leads the way to new levels of
23
Garcia and Fishman: 2002: 4.
Lingua francas are defined as hybrid languages used in communication between two different peoples.
25
McCrum, Robert. Globish: How the English Language Became the World’s Language. London: W.W. Norton and
& Company Inc., 2010, pp 11-12.
24
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global explorations in New York City. We invite the readers of this article to discover their
own answers through the suggested units of instruction and activities.
Possible Units of Instruction and Activities
1. Explore the historical period during which Spain and Portugal are declining as world
powers while the Netherlands and England are rivaling to with them and with each other
to replace them. How does the world linguistic map reflect this? Are there any parallels in
today’s situation? Consider the importance of Spanish and other languages in the city.
2. Research the relationship of globalization and international trade with the development
of pidgins and creoles.
3. Investigate the history and relationship of the Dutch and the English languages.
4. Research the special qualities and the history of English which have made it the language
of Great Britain as well as today’s global language.
5. Contact the Endangered Language Alliance of the City University of New York. Report
on their work and on the efforts to revive the Lenape Language. How would this change
the linguistic/cultural climate in New York? Consider the revival of other languages,
using Hebrew as an example of successful revitalization.
10
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