There is a Black Girl Bookfair happening online April 25th.

Its free unless you buy tickets for one of the events.

"The simultaneous borrowing of French and Latin words led to a highly distinctive feature of modern English vocabulary: sets of three items, all expressing the same fundamental notion but differing slightly in meaning or style, e.g., kingly, royal, regal; rise, mount, ascend; ask, question, interrogate; fast, firm, secure; holy, sacred, consecrated. The Old English word (the first in each triplet) is the most colloquial, the French (the second) is more literary, and the Latin word (the last) more learned." (Howard Jackson and Etienne Zé Amvela, "Words, Meaning and Vocabulary: An Introduction to Modern English Lexicology." Continuum, 2000)

via ThoughtCo

Though I like how John McWhorter phrases it better:

But language tends not to do what we want it to. The die was cast: English had thousands of new words competing with native English words for the same things. One result was triplets allowing us to express ideas with varying degrees of formality. Help is English, aid is French, assist is Latin. Or, kingly is English, royal is French, regal is Latin – note how one imagines posture improving with each level: kingly sounds almost mocking, regal is straight-backed like a throne, royal is somewhere in the middle, a worthy but fallible monarch.

Okay so during the last lesson I gave a big warning which I'll give again here, you cannot use tá to link two nouns directly, for phrases like "Fionn is a hero", instead you use "the copula" which is like a special verb with its own structures.

In the present tense the copula is "Is"

So "fionn is a hero" is "Is laoch Fionn" "Niamh is a princess" - "Is banphrionsa Niamh". "They are heroes" - "Is laochra iad" "I am a woman" - "Is bean mé"

The copula is really important to Irish, but it uses a few different structures which can make it one of the more challenging parts of the language.

The structure is different for "definite" nouns and "indefinite" nouns. Definite nouns are specific nouns, things like "the sword", "the swords", "my sword", "Fionn's sword". On the other hand, indefinite nouns are things like "a sword", "swords" not referring to a specific one/ones.

We saw the indefinite structure above. "Is [description] [subject]" "Is fear Fionn" - Fionn is a man. "Is fir sinn" - We are men. (You could use muid here too, but sinn is what's used in munster. "Is fear an rí" - The king is a man.

These are indefinite because the description is indefinite - "a man", "men" rather than "the man" or "the men".

Sometimes you'll see a pronoun before the subject, this is common but it doesn't change the meaning and isn't strictly necessary:

Is fear é Fionn - Finn is a man

Is banphrionsa í Niamh - Niamh is a princess

Is laochra iad Fionn agus Oisín - Finn and Oisín are heroes The pronoun should match the subject that follows it.

The copula has negative forms, and past tense forms etc.

Ba laoch Fionn = Finn was a hero

Ní laoch Fionn = Finn is not a hero

Deir sí gur laoch Fionn = She says that Finn is a hero

An laoch tú? = Are you a hero?

The copula does not have a future tense form, another structure is used in cases where that could come up which will be discussed in a later lesson.

Moving on to definite descriptions, if we want to say something like "Cormac is the king" we say "Is é Cormac an rí" OR "Is é an rí Cormac".

This first pronoun doesn't really convey any additional meaning but it is necessary in this structure. It should match the gender of the person if we're talking about a person, and otherwise it should match the noun that comes directly after it.

The general rule here regarding the order is that you put the new information first. So the first one is informing someone who the king is, and the second one is informing someone who Cormac is.

"Is í mo mháthair an ridire" - The knight is my mother

"Is é an ridire an rí" - The knight is the king

If the subject is a third person pronoun (he, she, they, it), then there will be two pronouns in the sentence

"Is é an gadaí é" - "He is the thief"

"Is í an bhanríon í" - "She is the queen"

Is iad na ridirí iad" - "They are the knights"

Deir sé gurb é an rí é - "He says he's the king"

(In some dialects the final pronoun is dropped, "is é an gadaí" but it's common to keep it in Munster)

If the subject is another pronoun (I, you, we, y'all), then the pronoun comes first and the emphatic form is used

Is mise an rí - I am the king

Is sibhse na ridirí - Y'all are the knights

An tusa an bhanríon? - are you the queen?

Homework

Here's some example sentences for you to try yourself, you can also put them in the comments if you'd like or if you have any questions, please give me those too

Cormac is a knight.

She is a thief.

Are they heroes?

They aren't heroes.

She says she's the queen.

Are you the king?

Are we heroes?

Just a bunch of things I've read recently.

The Authoritarian Roots of India's Democracy by Tripurdaman Singh

Why is Everything So Ugly?

Casual Viewing by Will Tavlin

“You are Next”: Unmarried Urban Women in India and the “Marriage Talk” by Shilpa Phadke

Crossing Days by Thomas Dai

Inside the Indian Manosphere by Lhendup Bhatia

Optimism and Desperation by Camilla Grudova

Everyone is Cheating Their Way Through College by James Walsh

Blunt-Force Ethnic Credibility by Som-Mai Nguyen

When My Authentic is Your Exotic by Soniah Kamal

The discontent of Russia by Joy Neumeyer

On anti-political projects by Kat Rosenfield

Social media and the collapse of ritual

Where are Lucy's friends in Materialists?

Sociologism Literature by Harry Schiller

Passion and Palestine by Derek Penslar

New TV Novels by Lisa Borst

From Progress to Catastrophe by Perry Anderson

The Crane Wife by CJ Hauser

Is There a God-Shaped Hole at the Heart of Mathematics?

How China Carved up Myanmar

How the Left misread Gramsci

Wildness: Feminism, identity, and the willingness to be defeated

There are no pure cultures

The desperation of the Instagram photo dump

Why haven't they told me about the cree all-purpose radio station sooner. They play everything from the 50s to today. Half of their ads and one of their shows is in cree which I do not speak a lick of but thats fine, they play banger music. They give me local news updates that arent dripping with UCP cocksucking. They tell me about things that affect a demographic I otherwise hear very little about by virtue of being a white guy in alberta.

Spanish Phrase Guide - Con Las Manos En La Masa

Con Las Manos en La Masa - Caught Red - Handed

• The police caught the robbers red-handed.

• La policía pilló a los ladrones con las manos en la masa.

Explanation: The expression “con las manos en la masa” translates to “with yours hands in the dough" and it is used to describe catching someone in the act of doing something wrong or illegal.

So you're interested in learning Michif--specifically, the language known as Southern Michif (sometimes called Heritage Michif, Chippewa-Cree, and other things) spoken primarily in Metis communities in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and North Dakota. If so, you probably know it's not easy to find resources! But I have gathered up some of the ones that are most useful, in my opinion as a learner who has gotten to a proficient level in the past decade.

Important note: if you make use of these resources, remember that you are engaging with a severely threatened Indigenous language. The community of people trying to revitalize Michif is very tight knit and dedicated and we welcome new folks, but give some thought as to how you're using the language and if you are doing so in an ethical and sensitive way.

Where to start

Online Language Course - this self-paced course is probably one of the best available ways to get started with Michif. It's definitely not perfect, but it provides the most gradual entry into the language while also eventually getting into more detailed topics and grammar.

Southern Michif website - a fun website that features many cool and helpful graphics that you can use to practice phrases and words in Michif. It's not interactive like the online course above, but it's still great. Each page has an audio recording by a mother-tongue speaker of Michif, Terry Ireland. There are also some games you can potentially print out and play (bingo, matching game, tic-tac-toe, Go Fish)

Reference materials

Dictionary - this is the online version of the the first ever dictionary created for Michif by two elders from the Turtle Mountain Reservation. It's great because it's searchable, there are a lot of example sentences, and everything has been recorded by first-language speakers. However, you'll notice the spelling system is very different than most of the other materials here, since the elders basically had to make one up themselves, so keep that in mind. Also, if you don't know how the grammar works, it can be very deceiving because they use lots of different forms without explaining. You can't just copy-paste Michif direct translations of words into English sentence patterns, fyi.

Southern Michif App - made by the same folks as the Southern Michif website, this app (for Android and iPhone) is a powerhouse. Its main feature is a searchable dictionary but what makes it really invaluable is the grammatical information available for each word, which are all labeled and include full conjugation tables. There are also some games, books, and videos included that you can peruse.

More learning resources

Michif audio course - a very old but still good audio course made by a proficient second-language learner and now teacher. This will take you through some of the most important grammatical concepts in the language, plus give you basic vocab and a little bit of practice using it all.

Piikishkweetaak añ Michif - a more traditional "language textbook" style of introduction to Michif. This may be helpful for those who respond better to text than audio or gamification. Lots of grammar explanations and some exercises to practice.

Other resources

These are not the only Michif resources out there by a long shot. The Gabriel Dumont Institute has a page of Michif resources but you have to be careful because some of it is for Michif French or Northern Michif rather than Southern Michif. There are interviews you can listen to of elders speaking fully in Michif which is great, though it will probably take a long time before you can start understanding much.

Spanish Phrase Guide - De Memoria

De Memoria - To Know Something By Heart or By Memory

• She knows the song by heart.

• Se sabe la canción de memoria.

• I know the recipe by memory. We don’t need instructions.

• Sé la receta de memoria. No necesitamos instrucciones.

List out your languages (main(s), target(s), side(s), etc.).

Write 1-3 main areas of focus, project ideas, books to read, films to watch, studies to complete for each language. If you have more than 3, you might list 3 main and 1-3 side aspects you would like to focus on. If you are unsure what to focus on, consider your strengths, weaknesses and as of yet unexplored topics related to the language or culture in specific, then choose 1-3 aspects which speak to your interests the most (regardless of whether they are connected to your strenths, weaknesses or the unexplored).

After making your list, view the points you've listed en masse. Rank the activities in order of most-to-least intersting or most-to-least crucial to your studies and long-term aims.

Now, look at each point again. Ask yourself: how long would it take me to complete this task if it were in my native language? How long if I had C2 level? B2 level? A2? Ask yourself: given my current knowledge base/level, usage (vocabulary + grammar + accuracy with or without resources), and access to the materials required to engage with these points/aspects, how long would it take me to prepare, collect resources, study, and practise/learn the skills/vocabulary/grammar required to engage with each of these points?

Ask yourself: Is my focus something that requires time in order to achieve? Is this skill a grape on a vine to be ripened? Is it a bottle to be cracked open? (For example: If, say, your goal is to write a short story in your target language and you already have a working knowledge of sentence structure and the tenses most required to write fiction in that language, you may be working with a bottle. Expanding your vocabulary/range of expression in order to improve your writing in that case is simply adding spice to mull the wine. But if you are still in the growing phase, your skills hang as grapes you must cultivate in a rich soil. Tend to them first.)

Use this reflection to help you reconsider your list, but do not do away with it entirely. These are interests which you may return to at a later time or in a future level.