What actually makes a language easier/harder to learn? @watchyourlanguage3870

Watch your Language Big thanks to my friends Sitora and Ethan for their help and advice!

Corrections: youtu.be/ZeEv6_rPGE4?t=732s

Visuals translations (all Russian):
1:05 : “In Soviet Russia, language learns you”
1:30 : “WHAT IS THIS????”
1:44 : “My Russian writing has improved recently, but conversations are still hard for me because I can’t understand [speakers]. Luckily, I remember Russian words easily because I talk [in Russian] a lot with my friends.”

Link to my first video, which I said I'd link to in the description, regarding English spelling exceptions: youtube.com/watch?v=FC6UJfZX0Jw&t=81s

If you need to learn what the symbols in slashes are: youtube.com/watch?v=c9suxf0mWXE

updated 5 years ago

What actually makes a language easier/harder to learn?

Watch your Language 2019-06-09 | Big thanks to my friends Sitora and Ethan for their help and advice!

Corrections: youtu.be/ZeEv6_rPGE4?t=732s

Visuals translations (all Russian):
1:05 : “In Soviet Russia, language learns you”
1:30 : “WHAT IS THIS????”
1:44 : “My Russian writing has improved recently, but conversations are still hard for me because I can’t understand [speakers]. Luckily, I remember Russian words easily because I talk [in Russian] a lot with my friends.”

Link to my first video, which I said I'd link to in the description, regarding English spelling exceptions: youtube.com/watch?v=FC6UJfZX0Jw&t=81s

If you need to learn what the symbols in slashes are: youtube.com/watch?v=c9suxf0mWXE

Predictions about the future of several languages Ive studied

Watch your Language 2024-09-10 | Links:
How to make predictions: youtu.be/pQIj-B1bepo?si=iScEw5PqI7aT9j09
Future American: youtu.be/F2Jw2ILRBVk?si=CCXi0-Ln1QXdKv8c
Video about laryngeal theory (timed link): youtu.be/7My8EnkJEDU?si=FChjS7Xcoelq8wUE&t=200
What Genghis Khan’s Mongolian sounded like by NativLang: youtu.be/HEoi6CpaUWw?si=SgQSxNRqH2mFQiL3
Language Overview: French youtu.be/jq-dDCQ2Awg?si=Nldo-SIHnM-QmM1T
Paper about vowel harmony: phonrochester.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/nguyen-fagyal-2008_acoustics-vowel-harmony_french.pdf
Language Overview: Arabic youtu.be/GDPC65IzfO8?si=9As_Ah4xPl-Ia1rE
Language Overview: Dutch youtu.be/rWtfl6ZVjjA?si=_1uSAHh9p_raqEvC
Linguistic Glossary: Nouns youtu.be/rty_oYYY_lk?si=mDjMDg1qXkjCGrqf
Paper about Amharic gender: https://faculty.georgetown.edu/rtk8/Gender%20in%20Amharic.pdf

Translations:
2:53: (Spanish) I can has vowel length distinction? (It’s the “I can has cheezburger” meme)
4:12: (Hebrew) I think I forgot something; If you forgot, then it wasn’t important; Yeah, you’re right; *The letters alef, hey, and ayin*
6:43: (Hebrew) How are these consonants different from all other consonants? (iykyk)
10:40: (Arabic) “I don’t hear the difference”; “Just use the vowels”
11:00: (Arabic) “I can help”
11:58: (Dutch) Adjective inflections? (Spanish) GONE! (I really didn’t want to translate “afuera”, as the statement would lose all its authentic oomph)
12:11: (Dutch) Plural nouns? (Spanish) GONE!
12:21: (Dutch) Plural conjugations? (Spanish) GONE!

How to predict the future of a language

Watch your Language 2024-08-12 | Links:
Predicting Future American: youtu.be/F2Jw2ILRBVk?si=jDLhIoRKNErLgV-D
Germanic sound shifts: youtu.be/zrXwzVquCWA?si=jIhMJsM7lYes0z3G
Romance sound shifts: youtu.be/fm4MHQWbbwU?si=iJlkKMW0tMEnAC1n

Translations:
10:05: (Proto-West Germanic) (Left) Thank Odin the Roman Empire is falling! (Right) There are three of them now!
10:22: (Proto-West Germanic) I can use this…
10:24: (Proto-West Germanic) (all lines) {word} will become {word with sound shift}
10:30: (Proto-West Germanic) Maybe also at the beginning? (and then the same stuff from above)

Language Overview: Dutch

Watch your Language 2024-07-24 | Links:
Germanic sound shifts: youtu.be/zrXwzVquCWA?si=3B8WcecGcH3xPzgc
Germanic grammatical evolution: youtu.be/SedljsNi0oA?si=PIryRNlj55kL-2OE
Romance sound shifts: youtu.be/fm4MHQWbbwU?si=Lt_FRw76OqhKA2Me
Language Overview: Swedish: youtu.be/WhdhxqS7E98?si=tGVr7KjVS0rXgXFw
Things to look out for in grammar: youtu.be/zreDUVmMc0c?si=Vgw35IUbA6cerfoV

Translations:
0:19: Every Dutch speaker outside of Amsterdam because I’m now talking about their dialects
1:34: (Afrikaans) We don’t speak Dutch here!
2:02: (Left) Vowels; (Right) Consonants
2:06: Types of headache; Migraine; Hypertension; Stress; Trying to linguistically analyze Dutch phonemes
3:02: Me wanting to say that [z] is an allophone of /s/; Words beginning with [s]
3:10: How I feel needing to include /z/ in the Dutch phoneme count
6:38: (Spongebob) Me; (Poster) Languages that show vowel length
7:47: (French) Plagiarist!
9:14: Dutch sentence structure now shifts into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE
9:16: *Dutch verbs* I am speed.
11:43: *Cases* I don’t want to play with you anymore.
14:08: (Left) Singular common definite article “de”; (Right) Plural definite article “de”
17:02: (Dog) Dutch adjective suffixes; (Halloween-looking thing) When to add the suffix
20:43: When he’s talking about the -en suffix again
21:14: Say the line Bart!; The language is Germanic, so it has a lot of irregular verbs in the past tense.
21:36: Me when I discovered the regular patterns within the irregular verbs; “It’s beautiful.” “I’ve looked at this for five hours now.”
25:43: Me; That video:: Me; This video

Linguistic Glossary: Nouns and Pronouns

Watch your Language 2024-06-11 | Links:
How to read IPA: youtu.be/eFRU_3azxP0?si=RqXhPHbt4WTGEpm5
How to start arguments between linguists (timed link to the section on cases): youtu.be/ODHpfm0c6AI?si=zFElM1fLellxoi_q&t=189

Summarizing Romance sound shifts

Watch your Language 2024-05-01 | Links:
Germanic sound shifts: youtu.be/zrXwzVquCWA?si=Y4EzNdkha_8npRfN
Emperor Tigerstar’s map of Ancient Rome every year: youtu.be/w5zYpWcz1-E?si=l20u0fx7UtqnfFvG
Xidnaf’s video with the dialect continuum example (What even is a language?): youtu.be/zP-PV9ryXM4?si=KbOalCxSb265bkwi
Swedish language overview: youtu.be/WhdhxqS7E98?si=USRjwCeudj82HV8_
K Klein’s video about Italian sounding like Swedish: youtu.be/ni3Kv4wZh6E?si=XBAO5BcNw4siT--U

Translations:
0:54: (Latin) I am your father.
7:06: (Spanish) Well now I am not doing it.
9:11: (Proto-Slavic) Can I offer you a nice sound in this trying time?
19:44: (Italian) A part of him lives within me, doesn’t it?

Language Overview: Telugu

Watch your Language 2024-03-18 | Links:
LingoLizard’s video about lesser-heard-of, highly spoken languages: youtu.be/DwSnPJJCVdA?si=P905RWyPgfvE60xY
How to start arguments between linguists: youtu.be/ODHpfm0c6AI?si=Y4hhlkcz5iZ9zu1K
Translations:
0:05: Every language you’ve explained has been European or Semitic. Now you’re doing Telugu?
4:15: (Elephant) Retroflex; (Penguin) Aspirated; (Hybrid creature) [ʈʰ] and [ɖʱ]; “What the hell is this?”
5:05: Telugu letters
6:02: (Top) *the obsolete rolled R character*; (Bottom) *the combined rolled R character*
6:54: Are these vowels? *Other resources* “Yes.” *Me* “No.”
7:07: Word: *Ends with a vowel*; Telugu, until very recently: “Wait. That’s illegal.”
7:27: So loanwords are the only way a Telugu word can end in a consonant? “There is another.”
9:16: If I explained how Telugu does recursion now *Visible confusion*
9:48: (Patrick) Telugu; (Squidward) Us; (Watermelon) Verbs
10:21: Telugu gender system: *Women* Am I a joke to you?
14:45: When you remember that the Telugu gender system also works like that
15:50: You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.
18:08: Agglutinative language; It still has stem changes:
23:00: “Infinitive”

How to read IPA ***REMAKE***

Watch your Language 2024-01-09 | Links:
Xidnaf’s IPA video: youtu.be/00pHrQo-0R4?si=zBGKGD8slD2Ixy2N
Language Overview: French (timed to the liaison part) youtu.be/jq-dDCQ2Awg?si=QdvOlNW3dpnPR7TJ&t=271
Omniglot writing: omniglot.com/writing

Explaining polyglots: What we mean when we say we speak X languages

Watch your Language 2023-12-05 | Links:
Polyglot Gathering: polyglotgathering.com/2024/en

Proto-Indo-European Ablaut explained

Watch your Language 2023-11-20 | Links:
Prequel about PIE *(s) and laryngeals: youtu.be/7My8EnkJEDU?si=WL2WVeXDxjS1TUbp
Timed link for Umlaut: youtu.be/zrXwzVquCWA?si=mdsKtLvCqGuB9nGq&t=797
Simon Roper’s video about PIE having two vowels: youtu.be/oJE3Ium5Q7Q?si=TTWvNYPK1lrPm1Ix

Language Overview: Polish

Watch your Language 2023-10-10 | Bardzo dziękuję moim kolegom Mateuszowi i Jarosławowi za ich pomoc!

Links:
This one very comprehensive and very helpful website I kept turning to: courseofpolish.com
Language Overview: Russian youtu.be/DFCFZV0lVNs?si=aOVc6WBQRbOWgjSU

Translations:
0:04: I am speed
1:50: Me: Hard and soft consonants; Them:
2:06: (Below) Typical Slavic palatalization; (Above) Polish palatalization
3:35: How non-Polish speakers see Polish:
4:15: (Joker) Voice matching in clusters; (Taxi) Devoicing at the end of words
5:09: Everybody stay calm!
6:48: How many consonants are there in Polish? IT’S OVER 9000!
8:02: (Poster) Polish orthography; (Spongebob) Me
8:14: Polish sentence structure be like:
8:40: Word order is flexible *I sleep*; Adjective placement is flexible *real sh*t?*
13:47: Oh Neptune.
16:15: *Polish* *Us* (Below) *Repeated pronouns*
18:45: *Us* *Cases* (Below) F**k
21:18: Virile form: *ends with I*; Polish adjective: *Ends with I in the singular*; Virile form: Well now I am not doing it
22:30: Barnacles, what could be worse than needing to conjugate every verb?!; I know!; Two verbs for every verb!
23:41: (Soldier) Me; (Kid) Y’all; (Artillery) Additional aspects
24:19: One does not simply squeeze every verb in a language into one video
24:42: (Russian) Sorry…
24:44: I think I forgot something; If you forgot, then it wasn’t important; Yeah, you’re right; *-ować verbs in the other video*
27:25: Words with “łi”: *exist*; Polish: Wait. That’s illegal.
31:20: Us: Please just zero more things to talk about; Polish: Three, take it or leave it.
31:23: Live look-in at our brains

One word, two concepts: Vocab that may be more specific in your target language

Watch your Language 2023-08-15 | Links:
This video’s prequel about grammatical differences: youtu.be/zreDUVmMc0c
Himba tribe color experiment: youtu.be/mgxyfqHRPoE
Russian language overview (timed link): youtu.be/DFCFZV0lVNs?t=1365

Translations:
4:34: (Hebrew) Bro what????
5:21: (Russian) We need to fix a bone in the foot

Summarizing Germanic grammatical shifts

Watch your Language 2023-07-19 | Links:
This video’s prequel, Germanic sound shifts: youtu.be/zrXwzVquCWA
NativLang video about sentence structure: youtu.be/6YIz1HXDbCI
RobWords video about English gender loss: youtu.be/bKaVI-IStNE

Translations:
2:52: (every language except English) Traitor!
5:48: (Russian) You see, I pulled a sneaky on you.
7:56: (Dutch) Since it sounds like the word “het”, we should write them the same!
9:12: (Proto-Germanic) My job
11:56: (probably terrible Old Norse) Can I offer you a nice word in this trying time?
12:54: (definitely terrible Proto-Germanic) Showing definiteness through articles… Showing definiteness through adjectives
16:40: (Swedish) We don’t do that here.

Language Overview: Portuguese

Watch your Language 2023-05-09 | Links:
Danza Kuduro: youtu.be/7zp1TbLFPp8
Language Overview: Spanish: youtu.be/hl2AdqP_QXo
Language Overview: French: youtu.be/jq-dDCQ2Awg

Translations:
0:11: *Brazilian Portuguese* *European Portuguese* -*Me*
0:33: Me
1:29: Roman influence
1:51: Treaty of Zamora
2:35: When you rank fifth in the world by native speakers and French ranks sixteenth *laughs in Portuguese*
3:01: Wait it’s all “ão”? -Always has been
3:12: Unstressed vowels: *exist* -European Portuguese: “Absolutely F***ING NOT”
3:40: Saying all the vowels in a word? Ain’t nobody got time for that!
5:48: (on arms) *Acute* *Circumflex* (on hands) Indicating irregular stress
7:00: What would happen if I explained the grave before any grammar *visible confusion*
7:13: I don’t want to play with you anymore.
7:34: When I mention in a video about a Romance language that C sometimes sounds like S “Ahh sh*t, here we go again”
9:42: Hi I’m Saul Goodman. Did you know you have options on object pronoun placement? Portuguese grammar says you do.
12:28: *Preposition* *Article*
12:48: What the hell is this?
13:00: (on SpongeBob) Me -(on poster) The Portuguese article system
13:50: Someone help!
14:27: (on Squidward) Spanish with only conmigo (with me) and contigo (with you) - (on SpongeBob) Portuguese with almost all the possible varieties
15:36: *Us* -*-ão*
16:51: Doubt
17:06: Us: How many past tenses do you have? Portuguese: “Three, take it or leave it.”
17:21: My past viewers when they hear how I worded that phrase -“Hey, I’ve seen this one!”
18:59: What can I say, I enjoy a bit of confusion
22:15: Me after making those charts
22:19: Looking at y’all, French and Italian
23:29: (Spanish) What happened to the haber (haver) cognate?

How to start arguments between linguists: The most contentious topics in the field explained

Watch your Language 2023-03-09 | Links:
Language Overview: Hebrew youtu.be/-_7K2UBwTzs
Language Overview: Arabic youtu.be/GDPC65IzfO8

Translations:
3:56: (Hungarian) Your “specifications” are stupid
8:10: (Hebrew, Arabic, Amharic, Telugu) It seems like Spanish

Super challenging Proto-Indo-European concepts explained: S in parentheses and Hs with numbers

Watch your Language 2023-02-07 | Links:
Predicting Future American: youtu.be/F2Jw2ILRBVk
Indo-European sound laws (Wikipedia): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_sound_laws
This video’s sequel about Ablaut: youtu.be/vw-Ow0DJEI4?si=FqHNj8GX_aFYTxv7

Translations:
1:53: (Dutch) where n
2:11: (Probably terrible PIE) When two words end and start with the same sound: “WHERE DOES [s] GO?!”

Language Overview: Swedish

Watch your Language 2023-01-20 | Links:
Summarizing Germanic sound shifts: youtu.be/zrXwzVquCWA
Understanding the Swedish Pitch Accent: youtu.be/lXp7_Sjgm34
Small grammatical details to look for when learning a language: youtu.be/zreDUVmMc0c

Translations:
0:02: (on the snow) This language; (on the antenna or whatever that is) Us
0:19: *Stockholm dialect* I am inevitable
1:30: Wait, so are you Modern Swedish? “Well yes, but actually no.”
1:39: Formality
2:04: (in front) Swedish consonants; (in back) Swedish vowels
3:27: (on the person) Me; (on the balls) “Uvular” “Retroflex”
4:41: Pitch accent; non-Swedes
6:51: How I, an American, see the letter Å
8:23: Conjunctions; Adverbs
8:54: You thought the genders were masculine and feminine
10:46: What would happen if I explained the articles before the nouns *Visible confusion*
11:15: The singular common article -en; The plural neuter article -en
12:18: (Swedish) Say the suffix in Swedish; (Danish) Don’t say the suffix in Danish; (Both languages) Me
12:35: One does not simply go to someone’s house to ransack the fridge
15:25: (on the golden retriever) Verbs in Swedish; (on the gargoyle-looking thing) Verbs in other languages
15:59: When you learn that the verb classes can’t always be determined by the infinitive
16:09: Gives present tense suffix; Doesn’t say which person it’s for
16:11: Language nerds
16:12: Everyone else
18:18: What is “supine”? I only know “past participle”
18:30: When the past tense form is irregular, but the supine is regular; “See, I pulled a sneaky on ya”
20:14: (in front) Me; The other video; (in back) Me; This video
22:37: where pitch accent

Ranking genres of music by usefulness for language learners

Watch your Language 2022-12-04 | Links:
The video about listening comprehension: youtube.com/watch?v=roQuK2M6DwY
Multilingual Let It Go playlist: youtube.com/watch?v=L0MK7qz13bU&list=PLnLeK30ZhTk9iazN9mfufFFhNeaMxC9JG
The five Israeli songs from that one demonstration in the same order as my list: youtube.com/watch?v=D3hMFAjV1EM youtube.com/watch?v=ZTNmNJnvdzc youtube.com/watch?v=n6ox4UhBBfc
youtube.com/watch?v=94BIxqTYJzU
youtube.com/watch?v=58lTTPq9PCM

Summarizing Germanic sound shifts

Watch your Language 2022-11-08 | Links:
Video about i-Umlaut: youtu.be/-NuZ1FmCewg
This video’s sequel about Germanic grammar shifts: youtu.be/SedljsNi0oA

Translations:
15:27: (French) Can I offer you a nice phoneme in this trying time?
15:55: (Polish) Can I offer you a nice phoneme in this trying time?
16:54: (Danish) Sorry, I had to... y'all understand - Also now I'm hungry, this potato looks really good.

Predicting Future American: Sound changes in American English that could possibly happen

Watch your Language 2022-09-14 | Sorry I sound unfluent in the ending monologue, I was literally reading IPA off my script of a language that doesn’t exist yet and tryna make it sound natural lol

Links:
Language Overview: English (timed to the phonetics): youtu.be/h9BfWHYnC5I?t=194
How some words get forgetted: youtu.be/tFW7orQsBuo

Language Overview: Arabic

Watch your Language 2022-08-11 | شكراً لكل أساتذتي العربية في جامعة بيتسبورغ!

Links:
The other video about Arabic: youtube.com/watch?v=9KGCQ9TLcvU

Translations:
0:07: What will happen if you see this video without having watched the other one [Visible confusion]
0:15: Yo dawg I herd you like languages so I put some languages inside of yo’ language
3:12: Arabic pronunciations shift into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE
3:18: I don’t wanna say all that
3:28: Me when it’s time to describe the rare phonemes in Arabic
3:50: How many rare phonemes does Arabic have? IT’S OVER 9,000!
4:20: Never let them know your next move
6:38: So nothing about the other dialects.
6:53: Vowels? Ain’t nobody got time for that!
6:57: Sorry I don’t speak that language
7:36: You are in this abjad, but we do not grant you the rank of letter.
9:54: When you can’t even talk about sentences without complications due to the dialects
11:28: (Predictable grammar) This is brilliant. (Long lists) But I like this.
14:05: Why is it, when something happens, it’s always you three? (First root, second root, third root)
14:07: Live look-in on an Arabic noun pluralizing
15:17: Oh, you thought you were safe with the feminine nouns? Think again.
15:32: I’m watching y’all… feminine nouns
17:27: Two men (not using the dual)... Two men (using the dual)
18:35: Don’t worry guys, Arabic will help y’all
19:55: Thinking you have a break from Arabic’s confusion
21:37: The wilderness must be explored!
22:12: But wait, there’s more
22:55: The example verbs will be…
25:06: Just deal with it
28:12: Infinitive verbs… The gerund or present
28:42: Me after trying that sentence
28:54: Lions aren’t human? I’ll eat you. (The adjective “human” is written as though lions are people, for the joke)

Why is Arabic so difficult to learn?

Watch your Language 2022-06-06 | شكراً لكل أساتذتي العربية في جامعة بيتسبورغ!

Links:
The rant about prescriptivism: youtu.be/QJS3SHQLLy0
Langfocus channel bc I can’t link the video I want: youtube.com/c/Langfocus

Translations:
2:27: (Late Middle English) Good morning, I hope you’re having a nice day, and I want a tall coffee with cream, please.
6:58: (Arabic) You’re studying Iraqi [Arabic] now?

Small grammatical details to look for when learning a language

Watch your Language 2022-03-29 | ¡Muchas gracias a Carmen por su ayuda con una oración!

Translation:
10:43: (Catalan) This is brilliant (A half). But I like this (Two quarters).

Language Overview: French

Watch your Language 2022-02-01 | Links:
NativLang video about the evolution of French phonology: youtu.be/a2TWBBxwhbU
Lawless French page about when not to do liaison: lawlessfrench.com/pronunciation/forbidden-liaisons
Lawless French page about silent letters: lawlessfrench.com/pronunciation/silent-letters
Stromae - Papaoutai youtube.com/watch?v=oiKj0Z_Xnjc
Maître Gims - J’me tire youtube.com/watch?v=F_rEHfLgdcY

Translations:
0:03: (Water) This language - (Scubadiver) Us
0:14: Don’t worry - This video isn’t replacing a French language overview
2:39: “What the hell is this?” (Elephant) Morphology - (Penguin) Phonology - (Penguephant) Morphophonology
4:34: Quit writing silent letters - They’re useless
4:38: Me, ignoring silent letters - Liaison
4:51: (Trumpeter) Liaison - (Girl) The silent letters that don’t do it
7:03: (Bridge) This video - (Truck) The part about C and G
7:33: Me right now
7:37: You thought we’d finished it
7:58: After French writing
8:33: (Hands) Le/la/les - (Left-side bicep) Pronoun - (Right-side bicep) Article
10:39: (Henry Cavill in front) Us - (Jason Momoa in back) Liaison
11:13: One does not simply go to someone’s house to ransack the fridge
12:31: When people start talking about the tens in French “I think we all know where this is going”
12:53: When they say they make better cheese and chocolate but you remember that they need a calculator just to say ordinary numbers *laughs in Belgian and Swiss*
12:56: People who know how to count in French
14:13: When it’s time to talk about verbs in whatever language “Ahh shit, here we go again”
14:21: (Homer in the tub) Competence at conjugation - (Bart with the chair) Irregular verbs
15:32: Doubt
15:42: The example verbs will be…
16:20: Letters -ent at the end of a word: *exist* - Verbs:
17:25: When you’d spent a good amount of time with the composed past and you learn that there are verbs that don’t take avoir
19:15: “Corporate needs you to find the differences between this picture and this picture.” - “They’re the same picture.”
20:09: Don’t breathe too much
20:27: (Water) French irregular verbs - (Fred with the mop) Me during this video
20:56: where destination
20:58: When you leave out the destination from a French sentence “WHERE IS IT?!”
21:53: Mentions elision - Never addresses it
22:04: Us: *about to do something with an initial vowel* - H aspiré: ABSOLUTELY F*CKING NOT
22:09: One uses elision when they need to in writing.
22:11: I use elision in speech wh’n’I feel like’t’s appropriate
22:14: Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?

Language Overview: Hebrew ***REMAKE***

Watch your Language 2022-01-11 | Translations:
0:02: Looking at the mistakes in the Hebrew language overview like
2:12: “Does anyone here speak Yiddish?” “Or Arabic?” “No, but we all speak Hebrew!” “So that’s our answer!”
2:35: “I couldn’t speak fluently until I was four, thanks Dad”
3:53: Don’t worry guys- Hebrew’s got y’all
4:50: One letter represents [j] and [i]- I can see that
4:53: How can a letter representing [v] also represent [ɔ] and [u]?!
5:13: I get it now- A sound change happened to Hebrew
5:34: (On the phone) Hebrew- (On the charger) Hebrew script
5:39: “Hey, that’s my job!”
5:46: “We’re the exception!”
6:51: One does not simply begin a Hebrew word with a vowel
9:17: You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention
14:10: Let’s go
14:15: Why is it, when something happens, it’s always you three? (First shoresh, second shoresh, third shoresh)
16:20: But wait- there’s more
21:42: (One verb for say) (The other verb for say)
22:12: Reviewing all the derivations separately? Ain’t nobody got time for that!

How to improve your listening comprehension in foreign languages

Watch your Language 2021-05-25 | Links:
Video on pronunciation: youtube.com/watch?v=nZaybs2oXe8

Unbrainwashing yourself from false language rules; An informative anti-prescriptivist rant

Watch your Language 2020-12-29 | ...

Language Overview: Russian

Watch your Language 2020-08-01 | Much thanks to my mans Ethan for his help in the video!
Link to his channel (about engineering): youtube.com/channel/UCcNNVsVY6sgB12IeWm5OxRg

Translations:
0:04 I’ll just assume that y’all can read
0:07 How it feels after you study Russian
1:27 Ex-Soviet countries when there’s still Russian inside their borders- “A part of him lives within me, doesn’t it?”
2:25 “Palatalization creates new phonemes!” “No, it’s merely a suprasegmental feature!”
2:51 “Doesn’t look familiar to me”
3:28 Russian vowels can decide how their reduction works for themselves. It’s not uniform across the whole language.
3:53 “Where’s your strength, weak peasants!”
4:14 Learners of Russian- Mobile stress
4:20 Russian writing- Uninformed people
4:23 Them: Russian seems impossible to write. Me: rUsSiAn SeEmS iMpOsSiBlE tO wRiTe
6:04 Russian sentence structure, doing whatever it wants
6:32 This is brilliant [pro-drop language].- But I like this [pronouns].
6:58 From now this video’s about to shift into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE
10:04 “I’m a regular person.” “What does that mean?” “It means he’s afraid of cases.” “No it doesn’t!” “6 cases!” “Stop it Patrick, you’re scaring him!”
11:15 When it’s time to explain the Russian genitive plural form- “Ah shit, here we go again.”
11:34 When you learn that even Russian doesn’t allow certain consonant clusters- [visible confusion]
11:56 Me, right now
12:23 After Russian nouns
13:46 “So no third person.”
17:04 “Barnacles! What could be worse than having to memorize every verb?!” “I know!- Two verbs for every verb!”
19:31 One does not simply fit every verb in a language into one video
19:41 And now we have the starting lineup for your RUSSIAAAAAAN VERRRRRRBS!!!!!
21:40 Me explaining aspects in the past- “Hmm. Yes. The floor here is made out of floor”
24:17 “I fear no man. But that thing… [Russian mobile stress]... It scares me.”
25:02 Long Russian words- Non-Russians
25:06 This phrase- Me

Corrections on the first 9 videos

Watch your Language 2020-05-21 | Translations:
2:55 (Hebrew) Jerusalem
2:56 (Hebrew) Tiberias
3:48 (Hebrew) What’s there? I don’t hear anything…
11:02 (Arabic) Hey, I’m here with my pharyngeal sounds!

Links:
Xidnaf youtube.com/channel/UCByBOwwOU5tKddYpsrHiUUw
Langfocus “Why is English spelling so damn weird?!” youtu.be/EqLiRu34kWo

How to improve your pronunciation of foreign languages

Watch your Language 2020-03-26 | Links:

What actually makes a language easier/harder to learn? youtu.be/Qhs8cjlIxT8
How to read the IPA charts https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c9suxf0mWXE
Omniglot Writing Homepage omniglot.com/writing
The song I used to demonstrate mouthwatching youtu.be/EYn84uEOxUM
WIRED videos relevant to the subject: youtu.be/oa6cHEJIjYI youtu.be/5aXmNle560k youtu.be/XKuPfZpzEHg youtu.be/KEmd6GyTzho youtu.be/NvDvESEXcgE

Corrections: youtu.be/ZeEv6_rPGE4?t=827s

Translations:
5:04 (Spanish) [bdg] lenition between two vowels; [n] agrees with the next sounds; [s] almost disappears before a consonant; others depending on the dialect
5:08 (Hebrew) [those 3 letters] change sound; the vowels around [those 2 letters] change; Hebrew’s system is so historic that I don’t know how to show the allophones without breaking the rules, because everything depends on the letter.
5:10 (French) R loses its voice; If you’re wondering why I didn’t write the silent letters at the ends, it’s because they still appear at the ends in other cases (feminine words), so just like in Hebrew, the system is too historic.
5:12 (Arabic) All vowels change to... ; I couldn’t do the formatting with more IPA characters or [the formatting] would be weird.
5:13 (Swedish) All front vowels (3x)
5:15 (Russian) Reduction (2x); Fricatives lose their voice at the ends [of words]
5:16 (Dutch) The “L” thing from earlier; on the ends (3x)
5:18 (Portuguese) The “L” thing from earlier; in the middle positions; before [i]; reduction
6:31 (Hebrew) My brain when I speak Hebrew
6:49 (Spanish) Uhhh, I don’t wanna try
7:04 (bad Spanish) And then uhhhhh, my dad picked me up from the airport and like, brought me home.
7:50 (Hebrew) I have no rights to these images, I’m not claiming ownership of them, and there’s no copyright infringement intended. The images that will appear will be used only for educational purposes, and in fact, this is free advertisement for the creator, because I’m a fan of him.

סקירת השפה: אנגלית

Watch your Language 2020-01-06 | טעות: ב2:00, כתבתי מילה בספרדית. המילה שם בטח קולוניאליזם, סליחה.

קישורים:
רשימת הווידאו הזה youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlc1cqkjB2AvSJwHu7PurJKlo5FOSBr-1
למה כמה קשה לאיית באנגלית? (באנגלית) youtube.com/watch?v=FC6UJfZX0Jw&
אפ"ב (באנגלית) youtube.com/watch?v=c9suxf0mWXE&

תרגומי תמונות:
0:10: כשהווידאו על שפה אחרת הוא בשפת אם שלך- "stonks" (רקב מצחיק ממילה "stocks", שנאמר "מלאיים")
0:11: כשסקירת השפה רק בשפה שהיא עליה
3:18: "אני חושב ששכחתי את משהו" "אם שכחת, אז זה לא היה חשוב" "כע, אתה נכון"
3:41: מלצר: האומצה שלך, אדון. נדירה מאוד. אני: וואו, זו כן נדירה.
5:50: אנגלית מצווה בזה שכל תנועות לא מודגשות מתבטאות [ə] או [ɪ]. - חריג: כש[i] או [ɞu̯] היא התנועה האחרונה במילה, שומרת את הערך המלא שלה ולא מופחתת.
6:53: אותיות באנגלית
8:24: אזהרה: אותיות תנועות מתקרבות
8:26: יא כולם בואו נחליט העתיד של האייות האנגלית חחח
8:52: E שתלטנה: תגידי השם שלך!
9:00: E שתלטנה: לא אתן, אתן תישארו קצרות.
9:04: hav וgiv! - זה have וgive! - השלי מתאימה עם החוק! - השלי לא נגמרת בV! - למה משנה??
9:51: כשמתחילים לדבר על ביגרפי תנועות באנגלית
10:06: כששתי תנועות הולכות, הראשונה מדברת [בצורה ארוכה]."
10:27: אייות אנגלית
10:30: הקלת לחץ בדרך זו
11:07: אני טיפה חשוב
14:11: תקחו גלולה מרגיעה אמריקאית!
16:18: עם מדרום הארצות הברית: y’all - עם מצפון הארצות הברית: *כעס*
16:24: דנדון, דעתך לא נכון
17:43: "אלה שפות מבלבלות"
19:58: כמה פעלים חריגים בעבר באנגלית
24:32: "על" "ב" "מ"
24:55: כזה אנחנו עושים את זה (שיר שכולם מכירים אותו לאיזו סיבה)

Aperçu de langue: Anglais

Watch your Language 2020-01-06 | Liens:
Playlist de cette vidéo: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlc1cqkjB2AvSJwHu7PurJKlo5FOSBr-1
Pourquoi est-ce que c’est tant difficile épeler en anglais? (en anglais) youtube.com/watch?v=FC6UJfZX0Jw&t=1s
API (en anglais) youtube.com/watch?v=c9suxf0mWXE&t=48s

Traductions des images:
0:13: Quand la vidéo sur une autre langue est en ta langue native- “stonks” (une corruption drôle du mot “stocks”, qui veut dire “actions (financières)”)
3:53: “Je crois que j’aie quelque chose oubliée” “Si tu l’as oubliée, alors ça n’était pas importante” “Oui, tu as raison”
4:16: Serveur: Votre steak, monsieur. Très rare. Moi: Génial, c’est rare.
6:38: Anglais décrète par la présente que toutes voyelles inaccentuées soient prononcées [ə] ou [ɪ]. - Exception: Quand [i] ou [ɞu̯] est la dernière voyelle du mot, elle conserve sa valeur pleine et n’est pas réduite.
7:48: Lettres en anglais
9:29: Avertissement: Lettres voyelles en approchant
9:31: Hé mes amis décidons l’avenir de l’orthographe anglaise hahaha
10:04: E autoritaire: DIS TON NOM!
10:12: E autoritaire: “Vous non, vous restez courtes.”
10:17: Hav et giv! - Have et give! - Le mien correspond à la règle! - Le mien ne finit pas en V! - Pourquoi est-ce que çela importe??
11:09: Quand ils commencent en parlant des digraphes voyels en anglais
11:25: “Quand deux voyelles promènent, la première parle [en forme longue].”
11:47: Orthographe anglaise
11:51: Soulagement de stress en cette direction
12:48: Je suis un peu important
16:22: Prenez pilule calmante américaine!
18:38: Gens du sud des États Unis: y’all - Gens du nord des États Unis: *colère*
18:44: Ding dong, ton opinion n’a pas raison
20:10: “Celles-ci sont des langues déroutantes”
22:46: Tants verbes passés irréguliers en anglais
28:00: “Sur” “à” “de”
28:27: On le fait comme ça (une chanson que tout le monde connaît par quelque raison)

Resumen de idioma: Inglés

Watch your Language 2020-01-05 | Enlaces:
Lista de reproducción de este video: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlc1cqkjB2AvSJwHu7PurJKlo5FOSBr-1
¿Por qué es tan difícil deletrear en inglés? (en inglés, con sutítulos opcionales en español) youtube.com/watch?v=FC6UJfZX0Jw&t=1s
AFI (en inglés, sutítulos indisponibles) youtube.com/watch?v=c9suxf0mWXE&t=48s

Traducciones de imágenes:
0:12: Cuando el video sobre otro idioma es en tu idioma nativo- “stonks” (una corrupción cómica de la palabra “stocks”, que quiere decir “existencias (financiales)”)
3:59: “Creo que yo olvidase algo” “Si lo olvidaste, entonces no importaba” “Sí, tienes razón”
4:24: Camarero: Su bistec, señor. Muy raro. Yo: Ay, qué raro.
6:43: Inglés decreta por presente que todas vocales inacentuadas se pronuncien [ə] o [ɪ]. - Excepción: Cuando [i] o [ɞu̯] es la última vocal en la palabra, retiene su valor lleno y no se reduce.
7:48: Letras en inglés
9:26: Aviso: Letras vocales abordando
9:27: Eyy chicos decidamos el futuro de la ortografía inglesa jajaja
9:56: E mandona: ¡DI TU NOMBRE!
10:05: E mandona: “Ustedes no, ustedes se quedan cortas.”
10:08: ¡Hav y giv! - ¡Have y give! - ¡El mío cabe con la regla! - ¡El mío no termina en V! - ¿¿Por qué importa??
11:00: Cuando empiezan hablando de los dígrafos vocales en inglés
11:16: “Cuando dos vocales caminan, la primera habla [en forma larga].”
11:39: Ortografía inglesa
11:43: Alivio de estrés pa’ cá
12:32: Tengo mucha importancia
16:01: ¡Tomen pastilla relajante estadounidense!
18:27: Gente del sur de EUA: y’all - Gente del norte del EUA: *enojo*
18:33: Din don, tu opinión no tiene razón
20:01: “Estos son idiomas confusos”
22:35: Tantos verbos pasados irregulares en inglés
27:54: “En” “a” “de”
28:23: Lo hacemos así (una canción que todos conocen por cualquier razón)

Language Overview: English

Watch your Language 2020-01-05 | Corrections: youtu.be/ZeEv6_rPGE4?t=757s

Links:
Playlist of this video youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlc1cqkjB2AvSJwHu7PurJKlo5FOSBr-1
Why is English so hard to spell? youtube.com/watch?v=FC6UJfZX0Jw&t=1s
IPA youtube.com/watch?v=c9suxf0mWXE&t=48s

Complications of learning potential extraterrestrial languages

Watch your Language 2019-08-08 | Translations:
1:07 : (Spanish) “What’s y’all’s land called?”
1:14 : (Spanish) “Well, there’s our answer.”
1:17 : (Spanish) “But let’s translate it?”
1:24 : (Spanish) “Eh, the damage is done.”

Language Overview: Spanish

Watch your Language 2019-01-27 | ¡Muchas gracias a Carmen por su ayuda en producción!

Este video es dedicado a mis estudiantes y profesoras de español en mi escuela donde soy ayudante a la profesora/tutor de pares.

Corrections: youtu.be/ZeEv6_rPGE4?t=697s

Translations:
0:49 : Hi, my name is…
1:27 : Seeing the Spanish phoneme inventory
1:29 : Because accents exist
1:34 : Getting it the next part of the video
1:37 : It’s just because I speak it
3:41 : April, July, December, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Spanish, Portuguese, French
7:32 : What do the Spanish adjectival suffixes mean?
8:05 : Spanish verbs shift into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE
8:28 : Conjugation skills… Irregular verbs
8:48 : Perfect tenses?
8:50 : It’s a family thing…
8:52 : (Hebrew) Y’all still have too many verb tenses, WHAT are y’all smoking??
8:57 : You’re mine.
8:57-9:00 : *breathe* boi
9:25 : Doubt
12:59 : (Portuguese) I can’t wait!
15:19 : Y’all have options
16:13 : Ain’t nobody got time for that!
17:55 : Just us!
18:00 : This sentence should be read excitedly!
18:04 : Oh s**t I read it wrong

If you need to learn what the symbols in slashes are: youtube.com/watch?v=c9suxf0mWXE

What to do about French writing//Ce quil faut faire de lécriture française

Watch your Language 2018-09-17 | For those confused by the last section: No, I’m not saying I’m a native French speaker. “Among us” in this case is “among the human race”.

Corrections: youtu.be/ZeEv6_rPGE4?t=681s

Meme translations

0:05: Here I’m writing some words in French to represent French writing. I’m continuing with the undisputed fact that this language is very complicated.

0:06: Doable/Undoable

0:08: Don’t worry- this video isn’t replacing a French overview

0:25: When you learn the rules of French writing

0:27: ~100% certainty (with some exceptions like fils /fis/ and fille /fi/)

0:46: But wait- there’s more!

0:52: *breathe*... BOI

1:02: Insert something here (the word used depended on what gender I was describing)

1:28: How would we know?

1:36: “I speak really fast without stuttering because I’ve always spoken French and it’s the language I think in. Everyone has that language, it’s just the magic of native languages.”

1:52: Organizes French orthography- Puts stuff in there that doesn’t matter

2:13: Organizes French orthography- Adds necessary letters

2:52: “I admit it, I’m not perfect.”

3:27: Me at that time

3:45: 404 phoneme not found

If you need to learn what the symbols in slashes are: youtube.com/watch?v=c9suxf0mWXE

How to read the IPA Charts ***old version***

Watch your Language 2018-05-17 | This video has now been remade to be more accurate: youtu.be/eFRU_3azxP0?si=h3e0m63o0hkWVTzS

Special thanks to Ethan and to my dad for their parts in helping me produce this video.

Corrections: youtu.be/ZeEv6_rPGE4?t=552s

Language Overview: Hebrew ***old version***

Watch your Language 2018-02-03 | Remake of this video (watch this instead): youtu.be/-_7K2UBwTzs?si=Y9gAO0vOhYhz3sBo

Most significant mistakes I made in the video:
1. Numbers 20 and above don’t agree with gender.
2. The infinitive form of “can” is לוכל (lukhal).
3. The passive form of להתכונן (l’hitkonen) is מוכן, just like להכין (l’hakin). What I said, מכוון (m’khuvan), is of להתכוון (l’hitkaven), which means “intend” (the passive form means “intended”).
4. In the end, I said מוחים (mokhim). It’s actually מוחות (mokhot).
All corrections: youtu.be/ZeEv6_rPGE4?t=155s

Translations from video:

0:00 “Hi”
0:51 “‘Anyone here speak Yiddish?’ ‘Or Arabic?’ ‘No, but all of us speak Hebrew!’ ‘So there’s our answer!’”
1:12 “‘I couldn’t speak fluently until I was 4, thanks Dad” (sarcastic)
2:29 “But still in Hebrew”
2:31 “When someone reads [God’s name] phonetically’”
2:54 “‘That’s not it, idiots, wash all the sin out y’all’s mouths!’”
3:48 “‘Don’t worry guys, Hebrew’s got y’all’”
3:57 “Non-Jews keep thinking that Hebrew is written in the same direction as English”
Crypt at 4:05: “To an English speaker with no prior knowledge, this is essentially what reading Hebrew would be like. Good luck. But it’s not actually that difficult when you understand the patterns and have a lot of practice.”
4:18 *Just a list of singular masculine present tense conjugations*
4:50 “‘One letter represents /i/ and /j/.’ ‘I can see that.’”
4:56 “How can a letter that represents /v/ also represent /o/ and /u/?!”
5:19 “I understand now- a sound shift happened to Hebrew”
6:00 Samekh (the letter that makes only the /s/ sound): “Hey, that’s my job!”
Any Mongols meme: “We are the exception!”
6:57 “‘Does Alef exist?’ ‘Ya, clearly.’”
7:15 “One does not simply begin a Hebrew word with a vowel”
9:13 Stamp: “Always”
9:37 Top: “Feminine gender” Bottom: “Words”
10:23 Stamp: “Just some of the time”
13:43 “Yalla (C’mon!)”
18:08 Stamp: “Easy”
20:48 “Give me more suffixes!!!”

If you need to learn what the symbols in slashes are: youtube.com/watch?v=c9suxf0mWXE

Why is English so hard to spell?

Watch your Language 2017-10-29 | To learn more about how the Latin/English alphabet formed:
youtube.com/watch?v=OGeIzmu9DSA

Corrections: youtu.be/ZeEv6_rPGE4?t=60s

If you need to learn what the symbols in slashes are: youtube.com/watch?v=c9suxf0mWXE