Faculty of Language, Literature and Humanities - General Linguistics

Berlin is home to people from more than 180 countries with different migration backgrounds and histories, who at the same time speak a variety of very different languages - including small and endangered languages. This individual and social diversity is part of humanity's cultural heritage. Their appreciation is an essential prerequisite for successful social coexistence in urban areas. Berlin spricht! is a project that documents the linguistic diversity in the urban area of Berlin.

The goal is to support speakers of different languages in preserving their languages in Berlin and to promote contacts between language communities in Berlin and scientists. The recordings shown on http://www.berlin-spricht.org/ were selected by the speakers themselves and are linked to their place of origin and their language. Further videos of the speakers can also be found on our YouTube channel.

New portal "Languages of Berlin"

Based on this, we are currently building the portal "Languages of Berlin", which will include an extended interactive map of Berlin as well as networking opportunities between communities in Berlin. With the portal "Languages of Berlin" we want to make a contribution to improve the togetherness in the urban area: On the online platform, the urban language diversity of the Berlin area will be documented interactively and dynamically in the form of a map. The project is modeled on the "Languages of New York City" project. If you would like to support us in this project, please contact nico.lehmann@hu-berlin.de.

Join our kick-off event for the new portal on 28.03.2023 at 18pm.