Linguist calls for London’s endangered language communities to be mapped

British capital may be second only to New York in the number of at-risk languages spoken, says Ross Perlin

Life in London has been mapped according to its health, wealth, land ownership, politics and transport at key points in its long history. But it is now hoped it can be charted in a way that tells a different story: the story of language itself.

Ross Perlin, an academic who claimed a prestigious 25,000 book prize last week, now hopes to start work on a mapping project with British researchers that would reveal the whereabouts of the speakers of the capital's most at-risk languages. The map, they believe, would be a first step to saving them.