a very niche studyblr

Life happens, and it's been way too long since I last updated this blog. However, I'm back now! Here is my long-awaited progress update.

Irish

A new language! I feel like I've talked about wanting to learn Irish before. Now I have the time and motivation to do it, and have been learning it for a few months. I am slowly reaching A2!

Korean

Korean has been on maintenance mode much of this year, as I have no reason to learn it further. I have started reducing my study of the language, as I am now at a nice ~B2 level and can actually understand most things with context.

Japanese

One of my online acquaintances has gone to Japan for a few months, and to be honest, I cannot let them be better at Japanese than I am, so I've made this a race. I have made good progress and will do more. Japanese is my top priority for now.

Okinawan

I have been slowly studying Okinawan alongside Japanese and am slowly getting to the same level at it as Japanese. This is not a priority though.

Ainu

Ainu is on maintenance mode until the start of the academic year, when I will most likely need to study it more.

North Sámi

I need to pick this up again, as I need to take university courses on it again and I feel like I've forgotten most of the things I learnt last year. I have been immersing myself in the language but need more vocabulary and grammar points to get myself out of the A2 prison.

Breton

A fun new side project. I am not taking it very seriously as of now.

Swedish

some of them are actually also on my "wishlist" but ive been struggling with finding resources, so i was wondering if youd have any to share?

im interested in the north korean variety of korean, in the jeju dialect/language and in okinawan! (i can also read korean, so resources in korean are fine too. sadly not good enough at japanese yet 🥲)

also if you have tips for finding resources yourself those would also be appreciated!!

tysm!!

Hello, and sorry so much for not answering this earlier, I've been super busy!

For North Korean, there are actual NK grammars for the language, but now that the country has started taking many of their websites down, it might be hard to access (also depending on where in the world you are and if you have a VPN or not), so if you can read Korean, I recommend just going to read NK news! They are very easily accessible online, for example, at KCNA watch ! You can also watch full days of TV content on the site and use their useful tools for going through the content. This site is awesome and needs way more support from viewers!

I usually recommend news and a good dictionary for any language, same goes for Jejuan, as you can find news online at KCTV Jeju. They are also on YouTube, so you can listen to the news in the language as well. There are just over 1000 lemmas in the Jejuan wiktionary, so that can get you started. After you have less to work on, but with a good website translator, anyone can use the Naver Jeju "dialect" database.

For Okinawan, I actually ended up finding most of the sources out there lacking, so I made my own textbooks while searching for information (I made three in total. I don't think I can post them because it's not my place to say how their language works, I might be a linguistics student but am not qualified enough yet). What I recommend is jlect for searching for words (may not be that helpful after reaching B2, as many translations are in Japanese. With Okinawan, you really want to know Japanese first, as most of the resources out there are aimed at Japanese-speaking Okinawans wanting to reconnect with their language. There is currently a Wikipedia incubator for the language, and I recommend checking that out for reading. For listening, there is the Okinawan "dialect" radio, which you can also find online if you look for it.

My hidden tip for any language is searching for grammars using Google's "filetype:pdf" search feature. I will demonstrate its effect:

Searching for a grammar online will usually bring you to websites which may not be very useful if you are a linguist like me as they are aimed at the average non-language nerd! Now, if we put filtype:pdf at the end...

and therefore the OP no longer wanted to learn them????

Somehow I was blessed with the kind of autism where I want to learn everything about the Korean peninsula, and thus, I have dedicated almost 8 years to studying the topic. If someone wants to know how to achieve this, keep reading! (Keep in mind that this is just my study route, you can always make your own!)

As said in my last post: If you have not learned Ainu yet, start now with my "already known words" list; if you have been learning for 1+ years, learn both lists!

ALREADY KNOWN WORDS:

tanukuran - this evening kotan - town hontomo - in the middle of kusu - because nukar - to look, see ruwe - because ora - because yakun - if onuman - evening arpa - to go (plural) opitta - all ronnu - to kill isam - to disappear, to die nisatta - tomorrow to - day nina - to gather firewood hine - and oraun - from there iteki - by no means pirka - good inaw - gift used when praying, inaw aep - food yakka - even if somo - not yak - if ye - to say kamuy - god, spirit nep - something kus - because hetak - okay. ek - to come (singular) utar - people turano - bringing with hopuni - to get up, flee eaykap - cannot pe - thing, nominalizer

NEW WORDS:

topattumi - night raid kisma - to carry, to nurse nisike - to carry firewood on back iwak - to return back os - to follow rikin - to rise up yaynure ani - to seem to koyayrayke - thankful uneno - similar nitne - hard, bad, spoiled sirari - lees, dregs kocarpa - to share food koyayattasa - in return yakanak - if, then kusis - bad, spoiled iwak - return sikoekte - to come towards someone epakasnu - to teach

I have been wanting to make a series about learning Ainu so people can see my progress! Maybe you can even follow my progress and learn the same words along the way!

If you have not learned Ainu yet, start now with my "already known words" list; if you have been learning for 1+ years, learn both lists!

NEW WORDS

hontomo - in the middle apapok - near door kenas - low place near river earkinne - very cikuni - wood ora - because nina - to collect firewood asinuma - self yaymonikor - busy sinean - one day sike - carry on back puniakus - lift ehopuni - raise, rise koskoso - weigh by hand kosne - light (weight) monaa - to sit ehopuni - return, resume ayne - so situri - stretch

ALREADY KNOWN WORDS

tane - today nispa - sir, leader ne hine - was, and kotan - town poro - big pirka - good sat - dry utari - people makanak - how, somehow eun - to somo ki - not kusu - because oro ta - (to) there arpa - to go (plural) wa - and eramiskari - to not know korka - because sini - to rest sorekus - all that poronno - a lot hopuni - to get up eaykap - cannot kor - to have

Ever wondered how to make lists in Ainu? Here are two grammar points for that.

X ne ciki Y ne ciki - Xネ チキ Yネ チキ Used for listing nouns.

X hine Y hine - Xヒネ Yヒネ Used for listing verbs.

Example sentence:

Cekunip ne hine ciki kam ne ciki a=sapte hine a=supa hine. チェクチㇷ゚ ネ ヒネ チキ カㇺ ネ チキ アサㇷ゚テ ヒネ アスパ ヒネ Fish and meat, we bring them out and we boil them.

Someone was curious about how I use my time to study this many languages effectively, so today I will write a post about it!

Note types

I like writing notes by hand. Digital notes do not stick in my head at all. On top of that, I do not use textbooks (North Sámi is an exception since I am studying it through my university) and only use free materials! I have a few different "types" of notes I write, here are some of them! (Sorry for any mistakes as some of these are old. I can see them too now that I am revisiting the notebooks)

AINU - I started my second notebook and am already approaching its middle point (???) I love the language. I have been considering going on exchange just to study it for a while but I have no time

KOREAN - impeachment & martial law vocabulary boosted 100%

JAPANESE - I have been putting off learning Japanese for a while now as it's not as important as the other languages but I have been learning more through Okinawan

OKINAWAN - Oh my god. I have been so busy! I have been hating all the sources available so I made my own textbooks (two of them), learning as I go. I shared them with my friend who is also interested in the language. I love the verb types after years of being so confused!

R**SIAN - For my degree. It's not mandatory but I want to learn the language to have access to the amazing selection of literature from my field!

MANDARIN - I have been wanting to learn Mandarin a bit more actively for linguistic purposes. My HSK level is somewhere between 2 and 3 I think

asirpa asir kuani

isoytak イソイタㇰ - to talk (also: hanasi ハナシ / 話) koysoytak コイソイタㇰ - to let someone tell their story eyayeysoytak エヤイェイソイタㇰ - to let someone tell their story yayeysoytak ヤイェイソイタㇰ - to tell one's story eysoytak エイソイタㇰ - to talk a lot about... ekoysoytak エコイソイタㇰ - to let someone talk about... ewkoysoytak エウコイソイタㇰ - to discuss... ukoysoytak ウコイソイタㇰ - to discuss various things with... ukoysoytakpa ウコイソイタㇰパ - to discuss various things with... (plural)

When forming/trying to understand these words, you can use this guide:

e エ = about, regarding w/u ウ = with other people, mutual (u at start of word, w in the middle. always written ウ in katakana) ko コ = facing/objective isoytak/ysoytak イソイタㇰ = talking (ysoytak is used if previous syllable ends in a vowel. always written as イ in katakana) -pa パ = plural yay ヤイ = self

For example:

The biggest achievement of this year was getting into my dream university. Here's how I did with my self studies.

AINU This was very fun and I am OBSESSED with the language. I filled up my 64-page notebook in under a year. I can speak pretty fluently already! Will totally be continuing to study this language next year!

KOREAN Korean was on maintenance mode for most of the year. I have been forcing myself to read and listen more and of course keep watching content in the language.

NORTH SÁMI My new focus for the year, I study this for university. I got great marks for my first course and I feel like I am progressing fast. There will be a small break where I can't take it at school again so I need to make sure I don't forget anything!

JAPANESE I have been studying this language a bit more than Korean for the first time. I feel like I still need to study a lot but my reading skills have been improving a lot this year!

MANDARIN & CANTONESE I have been consuming content in both languages over the year and have become obsessed with Cantonese cooking shows. I can understand a lot, but I cannot speak at all in either language

KARELIAN I have been reading content and trying to finally learn some grammar. Waiting to enroll in a course in this language some day. I understand the language perfectly because I grew up hearing it, just can't speak it!

OKINAWAN I have neglected this language a bit. I got about 5 pages of notes written down this year. Next year I hope to focus on the conjugations of words more

DUTCH I can understand text very well due to my existing Swedish knowledge but cannot understand speech well. Maybe I need to focus on that next year.

SWEDISH I moved to an area where this language is spoken more so I have naturally started picking up more words. I can speak the language well already but now I know what words the locals use for stuff, it's super interesting

YUKAGHIR? I have started picking up words from all the Yukaghir music I listen to. I wasn't even going to learn the language. Please I don't want to fall down another language rabbit hole and be obsessed with a random language

-po - a suffix added to words to form a diminutive.

menoko メノコ > menokopo メノコポ okkayo オッカヨ > okkayopo オッカヨポ pet ペッ > petpo ペッポ

-popo - a suffix added to names to describe small children.

ewenewsar - to spend time and have fun (sing, dance, tell stories etc.)

ekiroroan - fun. enjoyable.

ekiroroanka - to entertain. to please.

ewkotoyse - to gather. to hold a meet-up.

iway(e(he)) - party, celebration. gift, present.

sanke - to give gifts

unkeray - to receive gifts