Recently, I have taken an interest in learning the Irish language or Gaeilge again, after taking a somewhat extended break from it to learn languages like Maori. But immediately, I found myself in quite a bit of a pickle when it comes to learning how Irish sounds are written, and how written Irish is read. … Continue reading Trying to make sense of Irish orthography, again (Pt 1)
learning
ππ» Method ππ» Review β Drops
Some months ago, I tried my hand at learning the Maori language, made more accessible through the release of learning applications developed in New Zealand, as well as the addition of Maori to several language learning applications we discussed, particularly Memrise. However, other than Memrise, there is another application which I am rather fond of, … Continue reading ππ» Method ππ» Review β Drops
3 languages that I’ve wanted to learn
Sometimes, I would ask myself this question -- given the time, resources and opportunity, which languages would I have got to learning? Recent events have provided opportunities to get started on some of these languages, but for the most part, I felt that I had accumulated quite a bit of backlog on language learning. Here, … Continue reading 3 languages that I’ve wanted to learn
Speaking Japanese — What Exactly is Rendaku?
When learning Japanese, you would have encountered several patterns in speech. For example, while a person in Japanese is δΊΊ (γ²γ¨, hito), the plural may be δΊΊγ (γ²γ¨γ³γ¨, hitobito). In a rather similar fashion, time is ζ (γ¨γ, toki), while sometimes is ζγ (γ¨γγ©γ, tokidoki). You may be asking, what is the pattern here? Notice … Continue reading Speaking Japanese — What Exactly is Rendaku?
Messing around to learn about Zipf’s Law
In quantitative linguistics, you may have encountered word frequency tables, listing out how abundant one word is relative to another, and the sort. Scrolling through these lists, there seems to be a trend. In English, the most commonly used words include "the", "of", and "and", while in Spanish, they are "de", "la", and "que". These … Continue reading Messing around to learn about Zipf’s Law
ππ» Method ππ» Review — Memrise
The next review is yet another giant in the language learning industry. Like Duolingo, there is a focus on so-called games to teach languages to users. Since its release in 2013 onto the mobile market, Memrise has garnered more than 20 million users, learners of various languages to various subjects. Using flashcards as the main … Continue reading ππ» Method ππ» Review — Memrise
The Language Closet 