Ross Perlin

Ross Perlin (born 1982 or 1983) is an American linguist and co-director of the Endangered Language Alliance.{{Cite web|url=https://slavic.columbia.edu/content/ross-perlin|title=Ross Perlin | Department of Slavic Languages|website=slavic.columbia.edu}} He has made significant contributions to the [https://languagemap.nyc/ Languages of New York City map].

Early life and education

Perlin is a descendent of Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants{{Cite web |last=Silow-Carroll |first=Andrew |date=2024-08-13 |title=Ross Perlin writes a love letter to New York — in Yiddish and 699 other languages |url=https://www.jta.org/2024/08/13/ny/ross-perlin-writes-a-love-letter-to-new-york-in-yiddish-and-699-other-languages |access-date=2025-03-11 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}} and a fourth-generation New Yorker.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2024-05-29 |title=Meet the New York Jewish Week’s 36 to Watch 2024 |url=https://www.jta.org/2024/05/29/ny/meet-the-new-york-jewish-weeks-36-to-watch-2024#perlin |access-date=2025-03-11 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}} He grew up in Manhattan, moving away from the city at age 15.{{Cite web |last=Okare |first=Fisayo |date=2024-07-22 |title=Linguist Ross Perlin's Quest to Preserve New York's Endangered Mother Tongues |url=https://documentedny.com/2024/07/22/ross-perlins-language-city-endangered/ |access-date=2025-03-11 |website=Documented |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Carp |first=Alex |date=2024-02-22 |title=The World Capital of Endangered Languages |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/22/magazine/endangered-languages-nyc.html |access-date=2024-03-12 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

Perlin has a BA from Stanford University, an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, an MA from the University of London (SOAS), and a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Bern. During his studies, he lived in Beijing for six months, where he focused on learning Chinese. For his PhD, he worked in southwest China with a Trung-speaking community, producing "a trilingual dictionary, a corpus of recordings, and a descriptive grammar".{{Cite web |title=Ross Perlin |url=https://slavic.columbia.edu/content/ross-perlin |access-date=2025-03-11 |website=Department of Slavic Languages |publisher=Columbia University}}

Career

As part of his linguistics PhD, Perlin studied and published a dictionary for Trung, a language spoken in the eastern Himalayas.{{Cite magazine |last=Perlin |first=Ross |date=2013-07-25 |title=Days of Wine and Rosaries: How to read the dictionary of an endangered language |url=https://harpers.org/2013/07/days-of-wine-and-rosaries/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |magazine=Harper's Magazine |language=en |issn=0017-789X}} Perlin researched the languages of the Pamir region of Tajikistan for National Geographic.{{Cite web |title=Explorer Home |url=https://explorers.nationalgeographic.org/directory/ross-perlin |access-date=2024-03-12 |website=explorers.nationalgeographic.org |language=en}}

By 2012, Perlin was working with the as an assistant director for Endangered Language Alliance and as the leader of the organization's Jewish languages project.{{Cite web |last=Ghert-Zand |first=Renee |date=2013-05-29 |title=Jewish Languages from Bukhori to Juhuri |url=https://forward.com/schmooze/177128/jewish-languages-from-bukhori-to-juhuri/ |access-date=2025-03-11 |website=The Forward |language=en}}

He is a lecturer in the Department of Slavic Languages at Columbia University.

= Writing =

Perlin contributed to the English translation of Bullets and Opium: Real-Life Stories of China After the Tiananmen Square Massacre (2020) by Liao Yiwu{{Cite book |last=Yiwu |first=Liao |title=Bullets and Opium: Real-Life Stories of China After the Tiananmen Square Massacre |publisher=Atria/One Signal Publishers |year=2020 |edition=9781982126650}} and Chen Guangcheng's The Barefoot Lawyer (2015).{{Cite book |last=Guangcheng |first=Chen |title=The Barefoot Lawyer: A Blind Man's Fight for Justice and Freedom in China |publisher=Henry Holt and Co. |year=2015 |isbn=978-0805098051}}

In 2024, Perlin published Language City, an exploration of the least-known languages in New York City.{{Cite news |last=Mask |first=Dierdre |date=February 19, 2024 |title=How to Speak New York |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/19/books/review/language-city-ross-perlin.html |access-date=February 25, 2024 |work=The New York Times}} In this, he places a focus on trauma as the source for linguistic diversity in New York, especially that of immigrants fleeing persecution, violence, and famine.{{Cite news |last=Mask |first=Deirdre |date=2024-02-19 |title=How to Speak New York |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/19/books/review/language-city-ross-perlin.html |access-date=2024-03-12 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} An excerpt from the book was published in The Atlantic, highlighting the likelihood that many endangered languages will die out in the near future. He wrote, "Threats to immigration and immigrant lives, language loss in the homelands, and the gentrification of cities appear to be accelerating the cycle.{{Cite web |last=Perlin |first=Ross |date=2024-02-26 |title=The Last, Improbable Refuge for the World's Endangered Languages |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/02/new-york-endangered-language-city/677565/ |access-date=2024-03-12 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}

Some journalists have speculated that a New York Times article highlighting Perlin's work may have inspired an anti-immigrant comment by President Donald Trump.{{Cite web |last=Grisar |first=P. J. |date=2024-03-01 |title=Did this pro-immigrant linguist inspire Donald Trump's latest anti-immigrant rant? |url=https://forward.com/culture/588029/language-city-ross-perlin-endangered-language-alliance-new-york/ |access-date=2024-03-12 |website=The Forward |language=en}}

Personal life

Perlin moved back to New York City in 2011, and lives in Ridgewood, Queens as of 2024. He married his wife, Cecil, in 2024. He is Jewish.

Publications

= Books =

Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy (Verso Books, 2012){{Cite web |title=Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy by Ross Perlin |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781844676866 |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=Publishers Weekly}}{{Cite web |title=INTERN NATION |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ross-perlin/intern-nation/ |via=Kirkus Reviews}}http://www.cpreview.org/blog/2011/05/this-is-your-life{{Cite journal |last=Baviera |first=Inmaculada |date=2012-02-01 |title=Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy, by Ross Perlin |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0023656X.2012.650451 |journal=Labor History |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=154–156 |doi=10.1080/0023656X.2012.650451 |issn=0023-656X|url-access=subscription }}
Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2024){{Cite web |last=Mask |first=Deirdre |date=February 19, 2024 |title=How to Speak New York |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/19/books/review/language-city-ross-perlin.html |website=The New York Times |via=}}{{Cite web |title=Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York by Ross Perlin |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780802162465 |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=Publishers Weekly}}{{Cite web |title=LANGUAGE CITY |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ross-perlin/language-city/ |via=Kirkus Reviews}}

= Chapters =

{{Cite book |last=Kaufman|first=Daniel|last2=Perlin|first2=Ross|editor-last=Rehg |editor-first=Kenneth L. |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Oxford_Handbook_of_Endangered_Langua/Hy5lDwAAQBAJ|title=The Oxford Handbook of Endangered Languages |editor-last2=Campbell |editor-first2=Lyle |date=2018-07-18 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-087704-0 |language=en |chapter=Language Documentation in Diaspora Communities}}

= Articles =

{{Cite journal |url=https://doi.org/10.32655/ltba |journal=Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area |last=Perlin |first=Ross |date=April 2009 |title=Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=91–113}}
{{Cite journal |last=Perlin |first=Ross |date=March 2013 |title=Chinese Workers Foxconned |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/503343 |journal=Dissent |language=en |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=46–52 |doi=10.1353/dss.2013.0024 |issn=1946-0910|url-access=subscription }}
{{Cite journal |last=Perlin |first=Ross |date=June 2014 |title=Radical Linguistics in an Age of Extinction |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/548294 |journal=Dissent |language=en |volume=61 |issue=3 |pages=70–75 |doi=10.1353/dss.2014.0064 |issn=1946-0910|url-access=subscription }}
{{Cite journal |last=Perlin |first=Ross |date=June 2015 |title=Two Occupys: The New Global Language of Protest |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/585795 |journal=Dissent |language=en |volume=62 |issue=3 |pages=92–100 |doi=10.1353/dss.2015.0054 |issn=1946-0910|url-access=subscription }}

Honors and awards

Forward 50 (2012), The Forward{{Cite web |date=2012-11-12 |title=Ross Perlin |url=https://forward.com/news/165736/ross-perlin/ |access-date=2025-03-11 |website=The Forward |language=en}}
New York Jewish Week's 36 to Watch (2024)
2024 British Academy Book Prize, for Language City{{Cite news |last=Cooper-Fiske |first=Casey |date=2024-10-22 |title=Book about preserving endangered languages wins British Academy Book Prize 2024 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/medicine-new-york-the-new-york-times-the-guardian-england-b2633737.html |work=The Independent}}