honey main

This is the story of two lovers. Princess Orihime, the weaver, wove beautiful clothes by the heavenly river, represented by the Milky Way. Because Orihime worked so hard weaving beautiful clothes, she became sad and despaired of ever finding love. Her father, who was a God of the heavens, loved her dearly and arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi, the cow herder who lived on the other side of the Milky Way. The two fell in love instantly and married. Their love and devotion was so deep that Orihime stopped weaving and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to wander the heavens.

Orihime’s father became angry and forbade the lovers to be together, but Orihime pleaded with him to allow them to stay. He loved his daughter, so he decreed that the two star-crossed lovers could meet once a year–on the 7th day of the 7th month–if Orihime returned to her weaving. On the first day they were to be reunited, they found the river (Milky Way) to be too difficult to cross. Orihime became so despondent that a flock of magpies came and made a bridge for her. It is said that if it rains on Tanabata, the magpies will not come, and the two lovers must wait another year to be reunited, so Japanese always wish for good weather and clear skies on Tanabata so the lovers can always be reunited.

Source: Japan Suite

Tanabata Vocabulary

七夕「たなばた」Tanabata, Star Festival

天の川「あまのがわ」Milky Way

織姫「おりひめ」Orihime (Vega, the weaver star)

機織り「はたおり」weaver, weaving

彦星「ひこぼし」Hikoboshi (Altair, the cowherd star)

牛飼い「うしかい」cowherd, raising cattle

Tale of Orihime & Hikoboshi Vocabulary

悲しい「かなしい」sad

ひとめで好きになる「ひとめですきになる」to fall in love at first sight

結婚する「けっこんする」to get married

怠ける「なまける」to be idle

天罰「てんばつ」divine punishment

引き離す「ひきはなす」to separate

年に一度「ねんにいちど」once a year

許す「ゆるす」to permit

カササギ magpie

Tanabata Celebration Vocabulary

浴衣「ゆかた」yukata - worn (usu. by women) on Tanabata

竹「たけ」bamboo

笹飾り「ささかざり」bamboo decoration

飾る「かざる」to decorate

提灯「ちょうちん」paper lanterns

折り紙「おりがみ」origami

星飾り「ほしかざり」folded stars

願い事 「ねがいごと」wish - written on tanzaku

短冊「たんざく」colorful paper strips - used to write Tanabata wishes on

巾着「きんちゃく」purse - for financial success

紙衣「かみごろも」paper kimono - for better sewing skills

投網「とあみ」fishermen’s nets - for good fishing and harvests

折り鶴「おりつる」paper cranes - for health and long life

屑籠「くずかご」trash net - for cleanliness and thriftiness

吹き流し「ふきながし」paper streamers - represent the fabric woven by Orihime

This question was recently posted on the Inuit-Yupik-Unangan Discord group, and user zanewallach gave this fantastic answer, which I’m sharing with you all below (the above map from Wikipedia by Noahedits may be helpful):

ehhh… it’s a complicated question to answer, but Inuit languages work on a spectrum. Pick a spot on the map, and the further west or east you go, the less you’ll understand. Generally, all the Inuit dialects in Nunavut, including North Baffin, South Baffin, Aivilik, Kivalliq, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut, are mutually intelligible for native speakers without much effort. These dialects share the vast majority of their basic vocabulary (although some surprisingly basic things such as greetings and the words for ‘yes’ and 'no’ are different from dialect to dialect) and the main way that they vary is in terms of gemination (generally, the more west you go, the less gemination occurs). That being said, it makes sense to classify the aforementioned group of dialects under a single name: Eastern Canadian Inuktitut. So, there are basically four main dialect groups which, for the sake of simplicity, can kind of each be considered their own language. Another way to look at it, is that Inuit is one huge macrolanguage, but I think the former approach is more practical.

The four major dialect groups (or languages) are these: Inupiatun dialect group = North Slope, Malimiutun, Qawariaq, Bering Strait Western Canadian Inuktun dialect group = Siglitun, Inuinnaqtun, Natsilingmiutut Eastern Canadian Inuktitut dialect group = North Baffin, South Baffin, Kivalliq, Aivilik, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut Greenlandic dialect group = West Greenlandic, East Greenlandic, Polar Greenlandic

Keep in mind, most all these dialects have subdialects, but at that level, it’s most just quibbling If we start with North Baffin, Inuinnaqtun is where it starts to become a legitimately different language, but still, I think  a native speaker from Iglulik would be able to understand 80% at the very least of  what a native speaker from Ulukhaktok was saying. North Baffin compared to Greenlandic is where the differences start to become pretty insuperable, but I still think someone from Nuuk could understand 70ish% of what someone from Iglulik was saying if they were trying their hardest. (But probably less so, the other way around) Theoretically, the two furthest Inuit dialects apart from each other are Bering Strait Inupiaq and East Greenlandic. I don’t think that speakers of these two dialects would understand more than 20% of what each other were saying Here is a list of basic North Baffin Verb Roots next to their Inuinnaqtun equivalents for comparison:

My advocacy for the preservation of minority languages has nothing to do with the fact that they are interesting/fascinating/any other adjective of that nature

Minority languages deserve protection because they are important, and they are valuable

The worth of a minority language is not determined by the entertainment it can provide to outsiders

While I believe that all languages are beautiful and unique, it shouldn't matter that a language is ugly, or boring or "useless"

I fully agree that minority languages and their cultures should be seen as beautiful, especially as they're often treated as being ugly. I also agree that this should be on the terms of the speakers, not a label given by outsiders.

My main point was in response to people replying to my rant about language preservation, saying that minority languages are "fascinating" as if that's the only reason we should care about preserving them.

But yes, speakers of minority languages and the cultures they belong to should absolutely be able to say that their language is beautiful, and there is a huge problem of majority language speakers finding minority languages ugly, uneducated, uncivilised etc which desperately needs addressing

Languages are worth preserving because. they. exist.

If you fancy learning a bit more about one of Japan’s lesser known (and sadly endangered) languages, try taking a looking at some of @yonagunilanguageblog​’s resources, both here on Tumblr and on Wordpress:

Yonaguni writing

Yonaguni numbers

Yonaguni language resources

Yonaguni is one of the Ryukyuan languages (or dialects, as classified by Japan), with about 400 remaining speakers and based in the westernmost part of Japan, close to Taiwan, as shown at (1) in this dialect map from The Languages of Japan (Shibatani, 1990):

Many of you may know that I keep youtube playlists of language samples, and I thought it was about time to compile them all into one post. They contain pretty much anything where you can hear the language clearly – music, dialogues, tutorials, movie trailers, readings, etc. I’ll probably add more in the future. Hope someone finds them useful!

afrikaans

ainu

akkadian

albanian

american sign language (ASL)

amharic

angolan portuguese

arabic

aramaic

aranese

armenian

aromanian

assamese

asturian

aymara

azerbaijani

bashkir

basque

bavarian

belarusian

belizean creole

bengali

berbice creole dutch

biblical (classical) hebrew

bosnian

brazilian portuguese

breton

british sign language

bulgarian

canadian french

cantonese

cape verdean creole

catalan

chechen

cherokee

chickasaw

coptic

cornish

corsican

cree

crimean tatar

croatian

crow

czech

danish

dogri

dutch

early modern english

egyptian

emilian-romagnol

esperanto

estonian

etruscan

faroese

fijian

finnish

flemish

french

french sign language (LSF)

frisian

fula (fulani, fulah, peul)

galician

gallo

garifuna

georgian

gottscheerish

greek

greenlandic

griko

gujarati

gullah

guyanese creole

haitian creole

hawaiian

hawaiian pidgin

hebrew

hiberno-english (irish english)

hindi

hindko

hittite

hungarian

icelandic

indonesian

irish

italian

jamaican patois

japanese

javanese

kannada

karelian

kashmiri

kazakh

khmer

kinyarwanda

konkani

korean

kristang

kurdish

kyrgyz

ladino

lakota

latin

latin american spanish

lebanese arabic

lemko

lithuanian

livonian

lombard

louisiana french

luganda

luo

luxembourgish

macedonian

malagasy

malay

malayalam

maltese

mandarin

maori

mariupol greek

martinique creole

mayan (general)

meitei (manipuri)

mirandese

mongolian

mossi

nahuatl

neapolitan

nheengatu (língua geral amazônica)

norwegian

nuosu (yi)

odia

ojibwe

okinawan

old english

old french

old norse

old welsh

pashto

pennsylvania german

persian

piedmontese

polari

polish

punjabi

rajasthani

rioplatense spanish

romani (general)

romanian

romansh

russian

ryukyuan

saint lucian creole

salish

sami (general)

samoan

santali

saraiki

scots

scottish gaelic

serbian

shanghainese (hu dialect, wu chinese)

shona

sicilian

silesian

sindhi

slovak

slovene

soga

somali

sumerian

swabian

swahili

swedish

swiss german

tagalog

tahitian

taíno

tajik

tamazight (general)

tamil

tatar

telugu

texas german

thai

tibetan

tlingit

tocharian

tokelauan

tongan

totonac

trinidadian french creole

tuareg

turkish

turkmen

ukrainian

urdu

uzbek

venetian

vietnamese

vurës

welsh

wolof

yiddish

zaza (zazaki)

Oh man, this is such a good question! Thank you for asking it!! Today, let’s talk about the basics of kanji. 

(Let me just preface this by saying that I have done absolutely zero formal study of Chinese, so I’m not going to talk much about kanji usage in China and countries other than Japan.)

Origins of Kanji

漢字 kanji, or Chinese characters, are a form of writing that the Japanese imported from China in the 5th Century AD. But before we get to talking about Japan, let’s very briefly cover their history in China.

Chinese characters are the oldest continuously used writing system in the world, first used in China in the late second millennium BC. At the time, most words in Old Chinese were monosyllabic, and one character denoted one word. Nowadays, as language, society, and culture has become more complex, many words are multi-syllabic and require multiple characters. 

How Kanji Are Formed

Anyone who has taken it upon themselves to learn some kanji has probably seen something like the above image showing kanji’s roots as a drawing. Characters that depict the item or idea they represent like these kanji are called pictograms and ideograms respectively.

However, even when the Chinese writing system was still in its infancy, pictograms and ideograms accounted for only a small percent of the characters. The majority of Chinese characters were created using the Rebus Principle. The rebus principle is a linguistic term for the use of existing symbols, such as pictograms, purely for their sounds regardless of their meaning, to represent new words.

An English example of the rebus principle would be writing “I can see you” as “Eye can sea ewe.” Regardless of the meaning of “eye,” “sea,” and “ewe,” their pronunciation is the same as “I,” “see,” and “you.”

Many Chinese characters are phono-semantic compounds. Phono means “sound” or “pronunciation” and semantic means “meaning.” So in other words, the character reveals a hint not only the pronunciation but also its meaning. Let’s take a look at a couple examples taken from Japanese, since I don’t speak a word of Chinese. 

長 long, chou

This 長 will become the phonological aspect for the following kanji.

帳 notebook, account book, chou

The 巾 on the left means “cloth” or “scroll,” which is what records would have been written on or bound in when this kanji was invented.

張 lengthen, stretch, chou

The 弓 on the left means “bow” (as in the weapon), and you can imagine stretching the bowstring to fire.

Figuring out these phonological aspects and their patterns is what really helped accelerate my Japanese reading abilities. I’m kinda a weirdo about picking up patterns like this, and I basically internalized them by reading. A. LOT. 

Another super important aspect of kanji is the radicals.

Radicals are Radical, Yo

Radicals, or 部首 bushu, are the building blocks of kanji. They provide meaning and pronunciation to the characters.

For example, the kanji 部 is composed of 3 radicals:

立

口

⻏

And there’s only 214 radicals to memorize!

Ahahahahaha why did I choose this language to study

It’s actually not that bad, though. Many of the radicals in this list are the same radical just in a different place within the kanji. And some of the radicals themselves are kanji, like the 長, 弓, and 巾 radicals from up above. Also, some of them are pretty seldom used. So don’t panic. Deep breaths. We’re gonna get through this.

I think I’d like to make a separate post about radicals and their meanings, or maybe make an individual segment on each radical in the future, so I’m not going to talk a ton about them in this post. For now, just know that they play an important role in helping you distinguish kanji from one another. 

Pronouncing the Kanji: On-yomi or Kun-yomi

Oh boy, now we get to what is arguably one of the most difficult aspects of the Japanese language (both for foreigners and native speakers alike). 

1 kanji, 11 different ways to pronounce it. And it’s one of the most commonly used kanji in Japanese. 

I should’ve just studied Spanish

To be fair, I picked a very extreme example of a kanji with a ton of readings. For the most part, kanji tend to have just two readings, the on-yomi and kun-yomi.

音読み On-yomi (lit. “sound reading”)

★　On-yomi is the modern descendant of the Japanese approximation of the base Chinese pronunciation of the character at the time it was introduced.

★　Often, due to the vast differences in Chinese and Japanese phonology and the dynamic nature of language, the Modern Chinese reading and Japanese on-yomi of the same character do not match, though you may be able to see a similarity in them. 

★　Because on-yomi represent the Chinese reading, it is standard to write the on-yomi in katakana.

訓読み Kun-yomi (lit. “meaning reading")

★　Kun-yomi is based on the pronunciation of a native Japanese word, or 大和言葉 yamato kotoba, that closely approximated the meaning of the Chinese character when it was introduced.

★　Some kanji do not have a kun-yomi.

★　Because kun-yomi represent the native Japanese reading, it is standard to write the kun-yomi in hiragana.

Let’s take a look at a compound kanji word and examine its possible readings.

今日, today

The most common reading for this word is kyou, which is the kun-yomi.

However, it can also be read as kon’nichi, which is the on-yomi. 

Probably 9 times out of 10 it will be read as kyou, but kon’nichi is more formal and you do see it on occasion. Also, konnichiwa is technically written as 今日は, even though this greeting is written in hiragana 99.99% of the time. 

Sow how can you tell when a word should be on-yomi or kun-yomi?

1. Look for okurigana!

Okurigana are kana suffixes following kanji stems. They serve two purposes: to inflect adjectives and verbs, and to force a particular kanji to have a specific meaning and be read a certain way.

For example, in the word 読みます yomimasu (read, polite, present tense), the みます (mimasu) is okurigana providing the inflection of the verb. 

Basically, if you see okurigana, the reading will almost always be kun-yomi. 

2. Surnames are almost always kun-yomi.

This makes sense, because kun-yomi is the native Japanese reading and these are the last names of Japanese people haha. 

3. If a word is made of 2 kanji, generally both kanji will be on- or kun-yomi.

受付 uketsuke, reception

this is the kun-yomi for both kanji.

物語 monogatari, tale

this is the kun-yomi for both kanji.

電話 denwa, telephone

this is the on-yomi for both kanji.

漢字 kanji, Kanji lol

This is the on-yomi for both kanji.

Of course, there are exceptions to all of the above guidelines I’ve given you. That’s what makes learning Japanese hell.

Fun. 

For anyone needing a bit of extra motivation; here are some KitKats cheering you on! (＾▽＾)

french: :)

english: oh boy

french: :)

english: oh no

french: :)

english: oh geez

english: :)

french: don’t

german: :)

english: oh dear

spanish: :)

english: no don’t

spanish: :)

english: oh lordy

polish: :)

english: i changed my mind

UK english: ladybird!

american english: ladybug

french: weird

dutch: :)

french: …what

dutch: the good lord’s little animal

french: …ok

irish, polish and russian: *giggling*

french: …just tell me

Dutch: :)

English: … tell me

Finnish: :)

English: for fuck’s sake

asl: :D!

english: tell me?

Romanian: :)

English: huh?

Hi, I’m Wynter, I’m Deaf and fluent in ASL (American Sign Language). I get a lot of people telling me they want to learn to sign, but not knowing exactly where to start. So, I am here to provide that!

Let’s start off with some basics, though. ASL does NOT follow English grammar (Signed Exact English/SEE does, but it is not ASL), it only uses English words and a lot of the communication with singing is done via facial expression and body language. Basically, it goes in the order of time > topic > comment. For example, “ I am going to pet dogs next week” would be “next week dogs me pet”, but there are quite a few variants and every person who signs will have a different way of doing this. Sort of how people who speak English in different parts of America have an accent and different ways to sign things. The most important thing to note about ASL is that *American* Sign Language is not universal. Most languages have their own form of SL and a lot of the word signs/alphabets are not at all the same. Another note, learning SEE may seem easier at first, but it can actually make the transition to ASL grammar that much more difficult. An example of differing signs is BSL (British Sign Language) vs ASL. 

This is the BSL finger alphabet:

And this is the American one:

So while there is a small bit of crossover, it is very, very different! Don’t get me wrong, a lot of times signers will understand each other at least a little bit, but it does need to be noted that signs can differ by language, country, region, and sometimes person. 

Now, onto what you came for…

Alphabet:

ASL Alphabet 

ASL ABC’S (NON-CC VIDEO)

The ASL Alphabet

Deaf Culture:

*Note: if you are going to be attending Deaf events, please make sure you familiarise yourself with our culture!

American Deaf Culture

What is Deaf Culture? 

The Importance of Deaf Culture 

Deaf Culture vs Hearing Culture (NON-CC VIDEO)

Finger spelling:

American Sign Language Finger Spelling 

Sign Word List for Finger Spelling 

Learn ASL: The Finger Spelling Alphabet for Beginners (CC VIDEO)

ASL Finger Spelling Word Printer (gives you the finger spelling equivalent to what you type)!

Finger Spelling Practice

Sign Language Translator

Grammar: 

ASL Grammar 

The Basic Structure 

Learn ASL Grammar (CC VIDEO)

Learn:

*Note: The best way to learn is through Deaf people/other signers!

Lifeprint 

SignLanguage101 

The ASL App 

100 First Signs (Lifeprint)

Misc:

A Day Through a Deaf Person’s Eyes (CC VIDEO)

Deaftube 

What Questions Annoy Deaf People? (CC VIDEO)

Things Not to Say to a Deaf Person (CC VIDEO)

Why I Don’t Sound Deaf (CC VIDEO)

13 Things my Hearing Friends Should Know (CC VIDEO)

National Association of the Deaf

I wanted to let fellow language learners know about some great courses that I think will help you out since they cover topics that aren’t typically taught in language classes. They cover various topics such as culture, linguistics, and psychology that will round out your language education. They are all MOOCs which means that they are free online courses available to the public. 

Exploring Language and Cultures:  You will learn about the benefits and challenges of meeting people from different cultures, what it means to be plurilingual and pluricultural, and the ways in which language and human communities shape each other. You also will look at the role of intercultural competence at the workplace, reflect on the use of English as lingua franca in international contexts, and get a flavor of the skills involved in language-related professions such as translation and interpreting.

What is language?: An applied linguistic perspective: This serves as an introduction to the discipline of applied linguistics. It examines what is meant by ‘language’, what its main characteristics are, and how human language differs from communication between other animals. It also asks whether theoretical knowledge about language can be applied to professional practice.              

Intercultural Communication: This free online course will help you better understand cross-cultural complexity; cultivate your awareness of your own and others’ cultural identities; highlight some notable variations in communication styles and cultural values; and signpost paths towards building your intercultural competence.

Multilingual Practices: In this course, you will identify central aspects around societal and individual multilingualism, evaluate the benefits of multilingualism of both minority and migrant speakers, identify issues that arise when people who do not share the same languages meet, critically evaluate multilingual language policies for both migrant and minority languages, and investigate multilingual practices.

Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics: This course introduces you to linguistics, featuring interviews with well-known linguists and with speakers of many different languages. Join us to explore the miracles of human language!

Introduction to Linguistics: In this course, you’ll get an introduction to the main approaches used in linguistic research, including linguistic experiments and discourse analysis. You’ll find out about the key methods used in linguistic descriptions, and some of the everyday ‘myths’ about language. You’ll discover how linguistic researchers turn our ideas about language into linguistic knowledge.

The Bilingual Brain: This course explores the brain bases of bilingualism by discussing literature relevant to differences in age of initial learning, proficiency, and control in the nonverbal, single language and dual-language literature.  Participants will learn about the latest research related to how humans learn one or two languages and other cognitive skills. Course starts May 5, 2019. 

Introduction to Lexical and Semantic Typology:  The aim of the course is to obtain the idea of the lexicon as a complex system and to get the methodology of the typological approach to the lexicon cross-linguistically, as well as to learn about the general mechanisms of semantic shift and their typological relevance. Course starts May 5, 2019.

Language Revival: Securing the Future of Endangered Languages: Learn how the world’s endangered languages are revived and why this process is critical to preserving cultural identity.  Course is archived but the material is accessible.

Introduction to Applied Linguistics and TESOL: You’ll explore real-world examples of applied linguistics, such as forensic linguistics and language assessment. You’ll look at the field’s impact on important issues - for example, reducing gender bias in language use and simplifying legal language. You’ll find out what applied linguists do through a series of case studies. Specialists will work through problems and show you applied linguistic research methods to solve them.

For Free Online Language Courses: Link Here

Saho | Afar-Saho < Lowland < East Cushitic

So, let’s talk about Saho. Saho of course is the closest relative of the better known Afar language spoken in the Danakil depression of East Africa’s Rift Valley. Unlike Afar-speakers, Saho-speakers can be found both in the lowlands and the highlands and have a history of extensive cultural contact primarily with Tigrinya-speakers—which in some cases has led to some interesting linguistic traits primarily if we’re talking in terms of phonology between Northern, Central, and Southern Saho. Saho as spoken in Ethiopia, known primarily as ‘Irob’, noticeably has ejectives and frequently, at that, due to extensive bilingualism in Tigrinya over centuries. Just for some examples, here’s two phrases from Banti & Cumar (2009) in Northern (Eritrean) Saho and Irob (Ethiopian) Saho:

Irob: ዓጋብ ጉርተ ዲላ̇ኯ̇ይ̇ታ ደግ̂ሓድ̇ ሓዎ ኮክዋጊይታ።

[ʕaɡab ɡurtɐ dilaːlejtá daɡħád ħáwwo kók waɡiːta]

“A bee in search of trouble looks for pollen in your porridge”

Irob: ሔቂ ሓቄህ ጋሓዶ ባዔሪ ማላብ ኣዑቢኔ።

[ħékʼi ħákʼeh ɡaħáːdo baʕêːri málab aːʕubiːné]

“If justice was just, the ox would drink honey beer”

Northern: ባሳካ ቤታ ባስካ ኣሊታ ባስካ ሓርሂታ ባስካ።

[baská béːtaː baská alíːtaː baská ħarhítaː baská]

“Honey is honey when people eat it, it is honey when they vomit it, it is honey when they pour it”

Northern: ዚዛሌ ꬋማቲ ዱዳ ዚዛሌ ያቢሔቲ ዱዳ።

[zizzaːlé ɖaːmati duːda zizzaːlé jaːbiħeti duːda]