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This year's hot enby language summer needs to just be French vocab acquisition 😭 gotta go through my booklets and get a lot of stuff into Anki and then practice it, there's also so many common words I use in my day to day life I just don't know the French for

#like i realised yesterday when talking to a friend that i don't know the word for sink #(évier for kitchen sink and lavabo for bathroom sink) #maybe it'll help me stop feeling like i'm stagnating #ellis exclaims

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fricative friday

#lingblr

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Studying linguistics is actually so wonderful because when you explain youth slang to older professors, instead of complaining about how "your generation can't speak right/ you're butchering the language" they light up and go “really? That’s so wonderful! What an innovative construction! Isn't language wonderful?"

#fr :D #lingblr

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#in order of most read medium: paperback digital phone audiobook #tbh as much as i listen to podcasts i only listen to audio books if it's the only format my library has of a book #bookblr

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any scottish gaelic langblr blogs?

#i study irish v loosely but i know i have a couple followers who study celtic languages? rbing for boost

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Have you played DIALECT : A Game About Language And How It Dies ?

By Hakan Seyalioglu and Kathryn Hymes,

A game about a small community isolated from the rest that slowly builds its own version of their language until it fades away or is destroyed. Beautiful and gut wrenching.

#👀 #once i've finished chants of sennaar i need to look into this #langblr

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ive developed a new studying technique called not doing it

#girl help i have 3 bits of coursework and a rapidly approaching exam i should be working on #studyblr

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Hello fellow linguistics enjoyer and Irish and French learner :D

hello! i'm tobi, and i love lingustics. my pronouns are he/him. i am fluent in english and learning irish and french. i love constructed languages, too! please talk to me in any of my languages about languages (or anything at all)! :D

bonjour! je m'appelle tobi, et j'adore la linguistique. mes pronoms sont il. je parle couramment l'anglais et j'apprends l'irlandais et le français. j'aime aussi les langues construites ! n'hésitez pas à me parler dans n'importe laquelle de mes langues à propos des langues (ou de n'importe quoi d'autre).

<STILL WORKING ON MY IRISH INTRODUCTION>

#langblr #check them out!

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Don't Use Duolingo if You Really Want to Learn Irish

That title is a bit dramatic, but I really don't think that duolingo is a useful tool for Irish, especially in its current state, so I want to talk a bit about why, and I'll also talk about some alternatives.

Pronunciation

The first and most egregious issue is that at some point recently-ish, duo decided to start using Text-To-Speech for their Irish course, rather than recordings of a native speaker. The problem here is that their TTS is not trained on native speakers of Irish and pronounces words incorrectly. It doesn't make consistent distinctions between broad and slender consonants for example.

Irish has no standard pronunciation, so I understand how it can feel weird to choose just one dialect for the purposes of pronunciation (the old recordings were from a speaker of Galway Irish), but having just one dialect is much better than TTS which sounds like a learner, imagine if they had TTS for the French course which sounded like an anglophone schoolkid trying to pronounce french, and claimed they were teaching you how to speak french!

Grammar

Duo tends to be correct on grammar at least, which is a start. But often people using it get very confused about the grammar because duo doesn't explain any of it. I think there's a place for immersion in language learning, and I don't think everything has to be explained like that, but within duo's system of sentence testing and exercises like that, not having any explanation for why it's "mo chóta" and not "mo cóta" can be really confusing. Duo used to have more grammar information, it's a shame that they removed it, I wonder why they did it.

Money and Motivation

Duolingo is a business, and their motivation is not to help you learn a language 'fully', but to keep you using their app and hopefully have a higher chance of sharing it with others, competing with others, buying or causing others to buy memberships or lingots or any other in-app purchases.

I don't want to make it out like duo is some big conspiracy and they're tricking people, I don't think that's the case, but it's good to remember that their primary motivation is to keep people using the app, rather than help people move to a level in a language where they don't need the app anymore.

Keep this in mind whenever you see people trying to sell you stuff for language learning.

Why do people use Duolingo

I do get it, and I don't want to make anyone feel bad for using duo, there's a ton of reasons people tend towards it at first 1. It's really well known, so especially if you're learning a language and haven't heard of other resources for it, you'll check duolingo 2. It's very motivating for a lot of people, checking in every day and forming that habit is a really good way of sticking with a language 3. It's fun, people enjoy it

If you use it for reason 3. and you still like it, then don't worry about this post, I'm not trying to yuck anyone's yums, keep having fun!

If you use it for reasons 1. or 2. you can still keep using it if you like, but I want to suggest some other things which you might find helpful in trying to get to a higher level in Irish.

Other Resources

To address the pronunciation issue, I'd heavily recommend you disregard the pronunciation in duolingo, if you're looking for more reliable sources of pronunciation, I'd look towards recordings of native speakers, you can find that on:

Teanglann and Foclóir (they use the same recordings)

Fuaimeanna

and a really useful and underused one: https://davissandefur.github.io/minimal-pairs/ where you can hear the difference between similar sounds that English speakers often mix up in Irish.

A lot of people like duolingo because it's nice to have a clear path forward, a progression that you can get into without too much decision-making. For this I recommend getting a good textbook or course and working through it, the ones I'll recommend also have native speaker audio on them.

Learning Irish by Mícheál Ó Siadhail, this book teaches Galway Irish, not just in pronunciation but in grammar too. It's quite dense but it's well thought out and well explained.

Teach Yourself Irish (1961) this book is available for free online, and is a really good option if you're interested in Cork Irish (Munster), and have some experience with grammatical terminology. I used this book myself and really liked it, but it's very intense and not for everyone. (If you do end up using it, feel free to skip the appendices at the start, they're more of a reference and sometimes put people off from actually getting to the first chapter. Also if you have any questions about it or need any help just let me know.)

If you want a video course, there's a great course called "Now You're Talking" which is available for free online, along with audio files and worksheets here. It features Donegal Irish and leads into the more intermediate level course called Céim ar Aghaidh also available online.

There's other textbooks that I have less experience with (Buntús na Gaeilge, Gaeilge/Gramadach Gan Stró, etc.) but if they work for you, stick with them, there's nothing worse than not making progress because you keep switching resources trying to find the "perfect one"

Whether or not you continue to use Duolingo, I would really really encourage you to try engaging with media in Irish. People often shy away from this when they're learning because they don't feel like they're "ready" yet. But you basically never feel like you're ready, you just have to try and find something near your level and try to get comfortable with not understanding everything. This is where you learn a huge portion of the language, you hear how things are pronounced you see what words mean in what contexts, getting input in your target language is so important!

I know content can be kind of hard to find, so I'll make a few recommendations here: There's a wealth of content available for free online (more if you're in ireland but some internationally) on TG4 If you're still starting out, I'd recommend trying to watch some kids shows since they'll have simpler language and will be easier to follow. I wouldn't recommend using English subtitles when you watch them. Some good options include:

Dónall Dána: an Irish dub of Horrid Henry, silly and childish but the actors have good Irish and importantly the show has Irish language subtitles, they don't always match but if you're still beginning and can't necessarily get everything by ear, they're really useful. (Mostly Galway Irish)

Curious George: another dub, again with Irish language subtitles (I can't remember what dialects were in it off the top of my head but I'd assume mostly galway again)

Seó Luna: No subtitles, but a good option if you're aiming for Munster Irish, the lead character has Kerry Irish

Miraculous: No subtitles but a better show than most of the other kids' ones and more bearable to watch as an adult (Mostly Galway Irish)

Ros na Rún: Moving away from kids shows, a long running soap opera, this has Irish subtitles and a really good mix of dialects within the show. If you're finding the kids shows boring or too easy I'd really recommend it, but it can be complex because of the amount of characters, dialects, and plotlines. I'd recommend starting at the beginning of a newer season and just trying to catch on to what's happening as you go.

There are a lot of books, if you live in Ireland you can get nearly any Irish book for free from a library, so please check out your local library or request some of these from other libraries in the system:

There's a series of fairytales (Rápúnzell, Luaithríona etc.) by Máiréad Ní Ghráda which are illustrated and for children, which are a really good option for when you're just starting out reading

There's kids books about Fionn and the Fianna by Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin

There's a cute little kids' book in Kerry Irish about a cat named Mábúis

Leabhar Breac has a lot of graphic novels, some of them based on Irish mythology, some on other stuff. The fact that they're illustrated can make it a lot easier to follow even if you don't understand all the words at first.

Gliadar has just released their Scott Pilgrim translation

If you're looking for something a bit more advanced you can look at some of the books for adult learners by Comhar, they contain simplified language and glossaries but have full original adult stories.

And if you're wanting full, natural, native-level Irish there's a load of books by those same groups, and others like An Gúm, Cló Iar-Chonnacht, Oidhreacht Chorca Dhuibhne, Éabhlóid, Coiscéim, and more.

And don't shy away from older books written in Seanchló either, they can be more challenging but it's a whole extra world of books

If you're trying to improve your listening comprehension, I definitely recommend listening to shows on Raidió na Gaeltachta, hearing native Irish speakers talk at full speed is really good practice. But I get that it can be overwhelming at first. Here are some things you can do as you build up to that:

Watching those same TV shows I mentioned without subtitles is a good way to build up listening skills.

Vifax is a website where you can practice listening to short news segments and answer questions on them, then getting to look at the transcript with notes afterwards.

Snas is kind of the evolution of vifax, now using clips from both the news and Ros na Rún.

I really hope that this post can help people move away from duolingo if they're looking to take their Irish learning to the next level, if you've got any questions, just let me know!

#irish

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#irish

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#irish

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/f/ : Unvoiced Fricative :: /v/ : Unvoiced Vricative

#hey I actually understand enough phonetics for this :D #lingblr

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i am tired please give me my degree

#studyblr #mood

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Positivity post, 22nd January - 11th February

Cooking new things and them turning out fairly well (most notable is the enoki and udon stir fry I made, absolutely delicious)

Soup leftovers

Submitting an exam I'm fairly proud of with plenty of time to spare

I got access to my phonology class on Blackboard!!! So unbelievably hyped for this semester

Calls with my uni bestie, at the time of first writing she isn't back yet but she will be soon <3

Getting more comfortable watching Instagram reels in French (ik ik but it's a start!!)

Green spaces on campus are very emotionally supportive

I've started playing geography games which is pretty fun - matching countries and capitals, naming countries on every continent, click where this country is etc. I'm not very good yet but it's fun to learn new things :)

One of my flatmates came back today, it's nice not having the flat be eerily quiet all the time

Countdown to fun events happening very soon!!

Waking up cosy and more rested day by day, classes are gonna hit me like a bus next week so I'm taking it while I can lol

Talking lots with a class friend about our exams (no collusion here dw) and bonding over our dislike of our history and culture modules, I'm hoping we can go for coffee after a seminar some day :)

Update my class friend said yes to going out for coffee and I can't wait!!!!

The sheer relief of submitting all my exams :D

I visited my friend for their birthday and we played loads of stardew valley

My uni bestie came back!! :D

Spoons and giggles with friends

A new class routine to get started with, my modules this semester are already looking to be much more interesting than last semester :D

The tumble dryer in uni actually dried my clothes for once!!!

Restful nights' sleep

Finalising accommodation for the Squad Holiday in summer and it looks so good considering the price we paid :D

Endless late nights chatting and laughing until we cry

The crocuses are in bloom at the local park and it's gorgeous!!!!

Visiting 2 friends in Scotland over the weekend, so much love <333

Podcast episodes my beloved

Seeing a different side to my uni friends over a game of Catan in a fun way (so much yelling 💀💀💀💀💀 but the insults were incredibly creative)

Clean sheets and clean room

Spoons cookie crunch with strawberries my beloved

Orange juice is absolutely delicious and I should really buy it more often

Getting back into reading and discussing books with friends <3

As an extension to the above: reading a book given to you by a friend and their annotations are all there <333

I recorded half a podcast episode on a night I felt really anxious and it calmed me down and sparked some creativity in me

The joy of learning new things, I'm loving my phonology class atm

Slowly developing a stronger sense of self, in the words of Marina and the Diamonds "I know exactly what I want and who I want to be" well not with that amount of certainty but still

Every year or so I reread Anne of Green Gables and every year I'm reminded of why it's my favourite book ever

#ellis exclaims #positivity #heybenni #knife gang #i am not good at updating this regularly but ah well :) #i think intentionally looking for the joy is really helping me lately #i feel so much more light and hopeful about things :)

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#irish #irish vocab

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#irish #irish vocab

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🕰 Introduction

Name: Basil

Age: 18

Subjects: Computer science, Programming, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, German

About me: Hello! My name is Basil, and I'm an 18 year old college student, who also works at my local library as a library page! I love learning languages, as well as fooling around with computers, and my favorite book is The Picture of Dorian Gray. I also love the podcast The Magnus Archives, and I wear several different styles of J-fashion, as well as coquette and dark academia. I follow back from my main fashion blog @cinnamon-swirlies.

☕ Thank you for reading!

#welcome to langblr basil!! #check them out! #langblr