蜜芽传媒

Half of all languages may disappear over the next century, and many of them have never been recorded. Linguist Ross Perlin is racing against time to map little-known languages across the most linguistically diverse city in history - contemporary New York.

These programmes present a portrait of five remarkable speakers of little-known languages. Ross dives deep into their communities to discover how they are maintaining their language, and culture, against the odds.

In this fourth episode he meets Irwin, a chef in Midtown Manhattan, who is trying to unearth the roots of Mexican cooking through his native language Nahuatl.

Nahautl was spoken by the Aztecs, and it remains the most widely-spoken of Mexico鈥檚 282 indigenous languages. Irwin came to New York as part of a major new migration in the 1990s, which would more than triple the Mexican-born population in the city.

The vast majority of Mexican restaurants, he says, "taste nothing like Mexican, lacking proper salsa, spices and chillies." As for the tortillas, because of citric acid they can keep for years in the fridge. "It鈥檚 like an immortal tortilla, that鈥檚 why they taste so bad." Like many Mexican immigrants, Irwin felt his health enter a downward spiral as his diet became more American.

Ross joins Irwin as he cooks authentic Mexican meals, and meets a group of other Nahuatl speakers who are joining together to promote indigenous languages.

We hear Ross Perlin鈥檚 recordings of Irwin speaking Nahautl, and reading his poem about the joy of chillies and chocolate.

Ross Perlin is a linguist who teaches at Columbia University in New York and co-director of the Manhattan-based non-profit Endangered Language Alliance.

Reader: Adam Sims
Produced and abridged by Elizabeth Burke
Studio Production and Sound Design by Jon Calver
Executive Producer: Jo Rowntree

A Loftus Media production for 蜜芽传媒 Radio 4

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