Three's Company [deu + pol + gle]

[księżycowy]

Ok, after doing one Pimsleur lesson each for Irish and German, I find myself at a crossroads. I like the approach, and the conversational practice, but the approach is a bit too slow, and I would rather spend that 30 hour listening to other things. So, I think I'll remove Pimsleur for now, and supplement my Irish and especially German with audio podcasts/courses through RnaG and DW respectively. I'm a bit cautious about digging too much into Irish podcasts at this point, due to my current focus on Munster Irish, but I think it'll be fine in the long run. It's not like at my current level I'll understand much anyway.

[księżycowy]

Gaelainn
22 mins.
Aside from the aforementioned Pimsleur lesson, I read the remainer of the grammar section of Lesson VIII. I'll post those notes I promised now:

There are two forms of the copula, is and ba. Is is used in the present tense, and ba in the past and conditional. There are no future or imperfect forms. The copula is not conjugated for person or number. The tricky part is the word order.

Is fear é.
Fear is ea é.
-These two sentences are used for definition. "It is a man." The second form is a common alternative in the Munster dialect, and is equivalent to the first sentence. As can be seen from my last grammar post, é turns up in yet another context! For the copula, the third person subject pronouns are é, í, and iad.
Is fear é sin.
-The first general word order changes to this when a demonstrative in involved. "That is a man."

Is é an fear é.
-This sentence is for identity. "It is the man." When the noun is definite the pronoun is repeated.

Is é sin an fear.
Sin é an fear.
And again, the above word order changes with the demonstrative is in play. The second sentence is a common alternative for the first in which the demonstrative takes the place of the copula.

I think that's enough for now.

Deutsch
19 mins.
Again, aside from the Pimsleur audio I read all of the B exercises, and answered the "quiz show" questions. I think for the rest of the week I'll work on an audio course (which I have yet to choose), and reviewing what I've done so far. I'm trying to save the C exercises for next week.

Polski
30 mins.
I did the exercises from Swan on the audio only. It was a good refresher, and I only messed up when I wasn't paying enough attention. I also worked through the exercises in the workbook, and completed all of them except for the listening comprehension and I have a few points to review before I can finish the unit quiz. I'll try to finish that up tomorrow.

[księżycowy]

Gaelainn
20 mins.
I worked on half of Exercise 20 (up through sentence 14), and also started listening to the audio for the whole of Exercise 20.

Deutsch
33 mins.
I started exploring some of the audio courses over at Deutsche Welt (DW), and settled on Deutsch, Warum Nicht? (DWN) and Nicos Welt (NW) as good sources of study along side Begegnungen. I'm sure more will avail itself of my interest as time goes on, and my ability in German grows. Anyway, I listened to Lesson 4 of DWN today, and then started reading chapter 2 of my pronunciation book.

Polski
30 mins.
I did some shadowing of the dialogues from Lesson 1, and then listened to the extra auditory exercises on the workbook tape. Then finally I did the dictation exercise from the workbook.

[galaxyrocker]

Conas tánn tú? I saw you talking about copula word order, which is one thing I find super interesting. I've always hated the "traditional" way of teaching it based on identification or classification, etc. It just always seemed a little confusing to me, and I felt there was a better way to do it. Thankfully, the teacher I first learned Irish from did have a better way, which I'll copy here (it's also all over Duolingo from when I used to help there).

The word order is going to be what is know as VANTP:

V = verb
A = Indefinite nouns
N = Names
T = Definite nouns
P = Pronouns

That's your general order. If you use a definite noun, a proper noun, or a name, you need to include the pronoun (é, í, iad, srl - note, after ní, these prefix an "h") before the first one. This is called a sub-predicate, if you're curious.

So take the sentence, "The spider is an arachnid". Here we have an indefinite noun (araicnid) and a definite noun (an damhán alla). So, putting these in order (A before T), you get Is araicnid an damhán alla. However, you need the subpredicate before the definite noun. Since damhán alla is feminine, you use í. Thus giving you Is araicnid í an damhán alla.

Now take teh sentence: Pól is the president of Ireland. Here we have a name (Pól) and a definite noun (uachtarán na hÉireann). So, putting those together, you get Is Pól uachtarán na hÉireann. Yet, you still need that pronoun. Is é Pól uachtarán na hÉireann.

Hope that helps explain it a little, at least at the basic level.


Also, good on you for learning a dialect of Irish! They're so much more fun than the standard, in my opinion, and you've chosen the one with the most resources in terms of books and stuff to read later on, that's for sure. Please let me know if you need any resource for Munster Irish, as I know some of the good people who might have access to some, no matter whether it's Kerry, Muskerry, Waterford or Cape Clear Island Irish you're after. In fact, we've got a discord server populated by well-learned dialectal experts (the vast majority of them focusing on Munster) and I can send you that link too if you're interested.


Ar aon chaoi, tá súil 'am go bhfuil chuile shórt go maith agus go n-éirí leat le do chuid staidéir. Is suimiúil an teanga í go deimhin.

[księżycowy]

Táim go maith! Agus go raibh maith agat!

I've sent you a PM regarding resources.

[księżycowy]

So, yesterday was my "day off" this week. I didn't do much (I even slacked on my Anki reviews, which was not my original plan). I did two language related things though. First, I watched the documentary Toraigh: Creag Bheag i Lár na Farraige on TG4 (streaming). I of course had the English subtitles on, but I was able to pick up the stray word or phrases here and there. (Can I just say how great it is that they added English subtitles to most of their programs! I can remember a time when they didn't have any, and that was hard for beginning learners (like me) to get into watching Irish language TV.)

I also completed the Unit test for Polish. I did "cheat" a little by looking the dialogues over again while working on it, but eh.

[księżycowy]

Gaelainn
48 mins.
I worked on finishing Exercise 20 and then I worked on the beginning of Exercise 21 (sentences 1-12). I also did a bit of listening comprehension with the audio to Exercise 20. I'm hoping to finish Lesson VIII and start Lesson IX tomorrow.

Deutsch
58 mins.
I did one lesson of Deutsch, Warum Nicht? (Lesson 5 to be specific), and one Unit of Pimsleur (#2). I also ready pgs. 15-20 in Modern German Pronunciation. Probably more of the same tomorrow.

Polski
48 mins. (Wow, just like Irish )
I worked on the pronunciation section from Schenker, and then did the audio from the workbooks again. Not only did I repeat the dialogues, but I also did the exercises (except for the extra two). I'm thinking of moving on to Unit 2 tomorrow.

Not a bad way to waste 2 and a half hours, I'd say. I'm hoping to continue sending more than 30 minutes a day on each language. Eventually, I think I'd like to try for at least a hour each, while I have the time. We'll see how it goes. I'm gradually bumping stuff up for now.

[księżycowy]

Unfortunately, life got in the way today. Some family drama, and I'll leave it at that.

I was able to do my Anki reviews, and also add in some Clozemaster and Memrise (only German and Polish for these last two). So it wasn't all down hill.

Here's hoping for a better day tomorrow.

[księżycowy]

Gaelainn
31 mins.
I started working on the rest of exercise 21, which it seems I took a step back from the last time I works on it, but I'm sure I'll get back there. I already started getting the word order down by the end of my 31 mins. But I could smell the smoke coming out of my ears, so I stopped. In other news, I managed to obtain a copy of Cnósach Focal ó Bhaile Bhúirne (which is a collection of vocabulary from the Gealtacht of Baile Bhúirne/Ballyvourney in West Muskerry, County Cork). This should go a long way to helping me learn dialect specific vocabulary. It is a bit dated (1947), but I think it'll be fine.

Polski
38 mins.
I started going over the dialogues in Lesson 2 (more than once, I might add) and the comprehension questions for the dialogues. I admit the first time I did the comprehension questions, I couldn't remember certain forms of verbs and what not, but I got there.

I also started going over the Zapamiętaj section, which part of is devoted to "negative polarity" words. I find it a bit like Irish, actually.

Nikt tu nie mieszka. - No-one lives here. (where nikt means " no-one", but requires the verb to be negated.)

In Irish:
Níor dheineadar pioc. - They did nothing. (where in this case pioc means "nothing", but again requires the negated verb. [Pioc actually means "a bit" in non-negative sentences, so it's not an exact parallel.])

Deutsch
35 mins.
I started working on the C (grammar) exercises a bit early. I completed C1-C5, which are on verb forms. It was pretty good practice, and the present tense of regular verbs and sein are pretty much second nature to me at the point. I also listened to B3 (the informational text) once. Then finally, I listened to the sixth lesson of Deutsch, Warum Nicht?

[księżycowy]

I've decided to see how simply trying to post every day will propel my studies. Where as I have had success with goals and doing a chapter/lesson a week, ultimately I don't think I need anything more than to move at whatever pace is natural for me. This should help me not rush as well.

Deutsch
40 mins. (and that's without the DW audio course!)
I continued to work on the C exercises from Kapitel 1 in Begegnungen. One of the exercises had me write three small texts. I'll post those below, in case there are any errors or what not.

Also, I notice that in one of the exercises the following happens:
Später bin ich Journalist. ([Later] I will be a journalist)
Today I noticed the following grammar notes:
Jetzt lerne ich Deutsch. (I'm learning German now.)
which can also go like:
Ich lerne jetzt Deutsch.

So, I got to wondering if you can say:
Ich bin später Journalist. or if that can't be done, for some reason. I notice an example with später in the same section of notes, but only with später at the beginning of the sentence.

And now the three texts:
a) Anna Tatzikowa kommt aus Moskau. Sie wohnt jetzt in München. Anna studiert Medizin und später ist sie Ärztin. Ihre Muttersprache ist Russisch und sie spricht sehr gut Englisch. Sie is ledig. Sie Spielt gern Tennis und hört gern Musik.

b) Paul Ehrlicher wohnt in Leipzig und arbeitet als Kriminalkommissar. Er ist geschieden und hat zwei Kinder. Seine Muttersprache ist Deutsch und er spricht auch English. Paul spielt gern Gitarre und singt gern.

c) Petra Sommer wohnt in Frankfurt. Sie ist Lehrerin und ist verheiratet. Ihre Muttersprache ist Deutsch und sie spricht ein bisschen Englisch und Spanisch. Sie lernt gern Italienisch und schreibt gern Gedichte.

I'm not sure if you can pro-drop, like I did. I just tried it though.

Polski
23 mins.
I listened to, and spoke, the dialogues again. I then started working on some of the exercises from the workbook. I completed a good few pages.

Gaelainn
17 mins.
So, I attempted to finish Exercise 21 after listening to the audio from Exercise 20. I failed miserably at completing the exercise, however. But rather than get frustrated, I'm going to go with a shorter time, and be pleased I did something in Irish today. I'll reread the lesson tomorrow, and go back through the exercises (especially 21) over the next couple of days.