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La troisième croisade (FR/IT/EO) TAC ’15 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Lakeseayesno Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico thepolyglotist.com Joined 4332 days ago 280 posts - 488 votes  Speaks: English, Spanish*, Japanese, Italian Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 1 of 92 25 March 2014 at 7:17am | IP Logged |
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This post marked my entry into TAC 2014. To check my TAC '15 log, go to page 7.
Lakesea's (In)decisive Log -> here (TAC '13) Setting up a new log in order to start my Nahuatl voyage with a clean slate. Taking a suggestion made by Crush on my first log, and since Nahuatl isn't exactly a popular language and resources aren't that easy to find, I've decided to make a compilation of the resources I'm using to study it, which I will add gradually to the first post. It's been only about two weeks since I decided to take learning Nahuatl seriously, and one of the thing that enables me is the fact that my incredibly kind friend, Mizton Pixan, accepted to tutor me in it. Mizton has studied it for years and is quite fluent in it. You can hear him talk in it, with subtitles in English and Spanish, here. I've decided to go for it mostly because of two personal beliefs of mine: for one, I think it's embarrassing that I don't actually speak the original language of the country I was born in, and for another, I'd like to support the effort to keep Nahuatl not just alive, but also make it an active part of Mexican modern culture. One of the tough parts of this challenge to learn Nahuatl is that I want to keep learning Esperanto and keep improving my Italian, but I think it isn't realistic if I want to concentrate in Nahuatl, so I'm taking Esperanto in as a side project, a sort of "do-whenever-you've-free-time" assignment. I'm aware it isn't the best way to learn a language, but being completely honest it's both the least difficult one of all three and the one I have least possibilities of practicing live. "Tlahtolli momachtiani" means "Student of languages" in Nahuatl, although being only one week in, I'm not sure yet of it being correctly written. <_< Judging by the grammatical structure of all examples I've seen so far it could be, but I could be wrong. I really dig the implications of being a "momachtiani", because it means "one who takes learning into one's own hands" (and, y'know... serial autodidact here). NAHUATL RESOURCES Dictionaries - Diccionario AULEX Nahuatl-Espanol - http://whp.uoregon.edu/dictionaries/nahuatl/ - Freelang Nahuatl Dictionary Courses - Mexica Ohui (Spanish) - Nahuatl Moderno Resumido (by Mizton) (.doc, Spanish) - Unilang Course (by Mizton) (English, w/audio!) - In nahuatiltin inahua (Nahuatl's laws) (.pdf, Spanish, ridiculously good grammatical and cultural guide) - Nahuatl Audiovisual (Spanish, contains miscelaneous videos and lessons) Apps - Nahuatl dictionary for iOS Edited by Lakeseayesno on 21 January 2015 at 11:07pm 7 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6059 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical) | Message 2 of 92 25 March 2014 at 2:39pm | IP Logged |
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Great! You seem to have a lot going for you: a teacher fluent in the language, appropriate resources and on top of everything, you live in the country where the language is from.
I'll follow this interesting log. Mucha suerte! P.S.: We have a rare languages TAC team. I know it's a little late, but maybe we can persuade team members to let you join, since you just made up your mind. Think about it. At least, you could join as an observer. I know from experience what it's like to embark on such a journey. Edited by Luso on 27 March 2014 at 11:27am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5863 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 3 of 92 25 March 2014 at 4:39pm | IP Logged |
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Wow this is great! Thanks for sharing those resources, i've been looking through them some and it definitely seems interesting. I'm not too sure on the pronunciation of the letters, though. I saw some videos on Youtube and it sounds like, for example, the "c" sounds more like a "g" (or perhaps an unaspirated c), and the same with "t": it sounds like a d/unaspirated t. Is there anywhere with audio for Central Nahuatl? Most videos on Youtube just say "Nahuatl".
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lakeseayesno Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico thepolyglotist.com Joined 4332 days ago 280 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Japanese, Italian Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 4 of 92 26 March 2014 at 12:15am | IP Logged |
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@Luso: Gracias! I understand that it's pretty late to join TAC, but even if just as an observer, I'd love to join the rare language team. I checked the roster and thread, and I'm sure I could learn a lot from people who've been learning less-well known languages for longer than I have. For one, I really like the idea of taking part in the monthly challenges. Should I post in the thread to ask for permission to participate?
@Crush: Since Nahuatl speakers aren't particularly known for producing video of themselves (rather, almost all the video content I've found so far is of other people interviewing them), finding any video where the dialect is clearly stated should proove hard. However, I've been reviewing this UniLang course (also written by Mizton, unsurprisingly!). It includes audio and since that is the variant he speaks the most, I guess it's a good reference for Central Nahuatl. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5863 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 5 of 92 26 March 2014 at 2:02am | IP Logged |
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Thanks, i hadn't seen that before. Even if i had, i don't know anything about them so wouldn't know that it was for the central dialect, though i guess the central dialect is just what's spoken in and around Mexico City?
I'm looking forward to learning more about Nahuatl and watching your progress. I've had Quechua on my mind for a while, so perhaps i can find a few things to apply to my studies of Quechua (though Quechua seems much more regular than Nahuatl). I'm also a bit unsure how to pronounce Nahuatl. The Spanish course talks about "un sonido sordo", which isn't quite clear to me. The same with the Unilang course (a "non-voiced" sound). Ahh, i just realized that it's the same person who wrote both courses! That makes more sense since the pronunciation charts were pretty much identical, with the English version being a bit more detailed. Online, i've seen various pronunciations: nahuatl, nahuat, nahua, nahual, i guess it depends on dialect, but for the Central dialect, do you know how it's generally pronounced? Edited by Crush on 26 March 2014 at 2:07am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5260 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 6 of 92 26 March 2014 at 3:06am | IP Logged |
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I will be following with interest as well. Learning a rare language is fun. ¡Buena suerte con este idioma indígena! Edited by iguanamon on 26 March 2014 at 3:10am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Lakeseayesno Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico thepolyglotist.com Joined 4332 days ago 280 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Japanese, Italian Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 7 of 92 26 March 2014 at 5:25am | IP Logged |
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I'm loving your questions. They make me want to find the answer to questions I hadn't even asked myself before. :D Cemtzompa tlazocamati (thanks a lot)!
Yes, the Central dialect is the one spoken in Mexico City. It's not exclusive to the city, though--supposedly Central Nahuatl is a mixture of Classical Nahuatl and the varieties spoken in Puebla, Tlaxcala, Guerrero and Morelos (where the largest native communities are); by the way, these are all central states located close to Mexico City. I'm not sure how to describe the -tl sound at the end of words, but I'd say "un sonido sordo" is actually a spot on description because making said sound implies breathing out but not using your voice. My own (puny) attempt at describing how to spell -tl would be to place the tip of your tongue in the same spot behind your teeth where it goes when you say the "-le" in ATHLETE, and then exhale one short, brisk breath (with no vocal sound). I'm no linguist, so please take this explanation with a grain of salt while trying to spell it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lakeseayesno Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico thepolyglotist.com Joined 4332 days ago 280 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Japanese, Italian Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 8 of 92 27 March 2014 at 6:52am | IP Logged |
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I think I've figured out a way to balance out Nahuatl and Esperanto at the same time I keep tabs on my language learning. I've been using the Pomodoro Technique for time management while working, but it hadn't crossed my mind to use it while learning languages (for those who don't know what this is, in essence it is a time management technique which in which four "pomodori", or 25 minute time periods, make one complete unit or "set").
I want to devote one "pomodoro" to Esperanto in the morning, and three "pomodori" to Nahuatl in the afternoon, therefore dedicating one whole "set" to languages every day. Ideally this set-up should work best because I don't consider Esperanto to be terribly challenging and I can sneak some SRS and vocab review into my morning routine before I start working, while Nahuatl demands much more from me, so I can put my head into it fully in the afternoon. Still now I wish to remind myself of one critical point: I want to avoid burnout at any cost this time, so whenever I don't feel like doing Esperanto, I won't. I REALLY want to focus on Nahuatl this year and I'd hate it if I ended up throwing the towel in because I didn't know how to manage my energy levels. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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