https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/taff

Publisher overwhelmed by response to Welsh Hobbit by [[Stephen Price]]

https://melinbapur.cymru/

Yr Hobyd: Tolkien’s The Hobbit to be published in Welsh by [[Stephen Price]]

https://www.ylolfa.com/en

https://llyfrau.cymru/en/cyfresi-arbennig/dysgu-cymraeg/amdani-dysgwyr/

https://pure.southwales.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/dawn-dweud-a-study-of-colloquial-and-idiomatic-welsh

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnwelsh/comments/1blqm8r/what_is_literary_welsh_where_can_i_learn_it/

https://www.ylolfa.com/products/9781800992887/my-way-to-welsh<br /> My Way to Welsh: A complete course for home learning<br /> Heini Gruffudd

ᔥDeborah-SSi in Heini Gruffudd's new book - Welsh / General / Questions - SSi Forum<br /> (accessed:: 2024-03-07 07:59:11)

https://www.icongrouponline.com/en/Search/Classic/Webster's%20Welsh%20Thesaurus%20Edition

This morning I ran across a copy of Jane Austen's novel Emma with some of the keywords on each page translated into Welsh as footnotes at the bottom of the page. Apparently it's part of a series of classic books published by Icon into a variety of different languages and meant for language learners.

The full list of their titles with Welsh can be found here: Webster's Welsh Thesaurus Editions

I'm curious if anyone has used these before, and if so, how helpful they've found them for building their Welsh vocabulary as they read English language works.

Is anyone aware of Welsh language books that have this sort of English vocabulary cross listed on the page? (Sort of the way in which lingo.360.cymru has news stories in Welsh with English translation help along the way?)

syndication link: https://en.forum.saysomethingin.com/t/websters-welsh-thesaurus-editions/40131

via siaronjames at https://en.forum.saysomethingin.com/t/a-graduated-english-welsh-spelling-book-1857/38542/4

Michael Sheen returned OBE to air views on royal family<br /> by Kevin Rawlinson<br /> Tue 29 Dec 2020 11.41 EST<br /> https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/dec/29/michael-sheen-gave-back-obe-to-air-views-on-royal-family

Dating back to the late 1600s, the Welsh tradition of carving a lovespoon for the eye of one's affection is the origin of the word "spooning".

via https://www.cadwyngifts.com/pages/information-about-love-spoons

https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2012-06-15/jack-daniels-tennessee-whiskey-from-south-wales

https://welshclass.wales/podcast%2Fpodlediad

Cognate with the Welsh cwtch??

https://www.howlingwolfbooks.org/sketchywelsh

see also: https://www.instagram.com/sketchy_welsh/

A Graduated English-Welsh Spelling Book by John Lewis

Some of the words may have shifted a bit since 1857, but there's something delightfully subversive about considering using this book to learn/practice Welsh in 2023.

Llyfr newydd - Welsh - SSi Forum

🎉

https://duome.eu/chrisaldrich/progress

Duolingo progress with words and grammar tabs

Typing the to bach and other accented characters in Windows 7, Vista and XP by Meurig Williams

I know I had it in there somewhere, but can't find it this morning.

To bach or circumflex on Welsh keyboard is:<br /> ctrl-alt ^ + letter

https://www.youtube.com/c/HanshS4C

https://www.s4c.cymru/en/international/

https://www.s4c.cymru/clic/

Hello from S4C - Welsh - SSi Forum<br /> by sara-peacock-1

Yma o Hyd Course - SaySomethingin

Can't wait for the audio files for this to pop up!

Until then: YouTube video with consecutive Welsh/English subtitles<br /> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkBQAvAFjus

YouTube video from FA Wales with Dafydd Iwan and the Red Wall<br /> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43Fag8ZQcz4

Calon Lân

Happy to see that @hirnbloggade@bildung.social has got some Welsh and somehow knows I do too.

https://mastodon.social/@hirnbloggade@bildung.social/109835728484596323

Welsh in the Rhondda - it was our language too

read on Tue 2022-12-06 9:57 PM

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/06/proportion-of-welsh-speakers-in-wales-drops-to-record-low-census

read Tue 2022-12-06 9:45 PM

https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/267323787

This seems to have an interesting relation to the tradition of wassailers and "luck visitors" traditions or The Christmas Mummers (1858). The song We Wish You a Merry Christmas (Roud Folk Song Index #230 and #9681) from the English West Country (Cornwall) was popularized by Arthur Warrell (1883-1939) in 1935. It contains lyrics "We won't go until we get some" in relation to figgy pudding and seems very similar in form to Mari Lwyd songs used to gain access to people's homes and hospitality. An 1830's version of the song had a "cellar full of beer" within the lyrics.

I'm curious if the Roud Folk Song Index includes any Welsh songs or translations that have similar links? Perhaps other folk song indices (Child Ballads?) may provide clues as well?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU5pk-Hc758

Dr. Gwilym Morus-Baird

• Llyn Bochlwyd (lake gray cheek)
• Foel Fawr
• Coed Llugwy
• Cwm Cneifion

Erasure of culture

Memory and place names

"A nation which forgets its past has no future." - Winston Churchill (check quote and provenance)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLQ6XlG0MQ4

!- Welsh indigneous language : bio-cultural worldview - researcher Siwan Clark, University College London, claims Wales is suffering environmentally since British colonialism during Industrial Revolution - North Wales - critical Welsh words are deeply agricultural. The fall of the small farms also erodes the language they evovled

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnwelsh/comments/ysgnfc/ydych_chin_dysgu_cymraeg/

Discord for Welsh learners: https://discord.gg/RrqFbVwKUF

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnwelsh/comments/10acr9j/sut_i_ddweud_i_memorized_yn_gymraeg/

Fascinating that the Welsh language doesn't seem to have a direct translatable word/verb for "to memorize". The closest are dysgu (to learn, to teach) and cofio (to remember).

Related phrase: yn dysgu cerddi ar gof (to learn poems by heart), though this last is likely a more direct translation of an English concept back into Welsh.

Is this lack of a seemingly basic word for such a practice a hidden indicator of the anthropology of their way of knowing?

If to learn something means that one fully memorizes it from the start, then one needn't sub-specify, right?

https://en.forum.saysomethingin.com/t/a-little-help-with-slack/37459/2

https://www.amazon.com/Geiriadur-Mawr-Welsh-English-English-Welsh-Dictionary/dp/0850884624

https://web.archive.org/web/20070203045327/http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~klausner/MUT.html

https://web.archive.org/web/19990501205918/http://www.madog.org/geiriadr.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20061012215828/http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~klausner/part.html

Check-list of common particles

GMW=D. Simon Evans Grammar of Middle Welsh (Dublin, 1964)

Y

• definite article (yr before vowels and h), GMW 24.
• unstressed possessive pronoun, masc. or fem., sing. or pl., GMW 53.
• preposition 'to' (inflected forms, GMW 60; can take infixed pronoun).
• oblique relative particle, used when relative stands in genitival relationship, or is governed by a preposition, adverb, or nominal predicate. GMW 64ff.
• conjunction 'that' (yd before vowels), GMW 171.
• y (4) + y (2 or 5) = y.
• affirmative preverbal particle (also appears as yd, ydd, ytt), GMW 171.

A

• affirmative preverbal particle, especially to support infixed pronoun, GMW 171.
• relative pronoun/particle, GMW 172.
• preposition 'with' (can take infixed pronoun), GMW 181.
• conjunction 'and' (can take infixed pronoun), GMW 230.
• variant of 'o', preposition 'of, from', GMW 205.
• interrogative particle, GMW 174.
• vocative particle (interjection), GMW 245.
• 3 sing. pres. ind. of 'mynet', GMW 132.

O

• preposition 'of, from' (inflected forms, GMW 59); can take infixed pronoun.
• conjunction 'if', GMW 240.
• interjection 'alas', GMW 245.
• in composite prepositions, GMW 205-6.

https://www.digitalmedievalist.com/opinionated-celtic-faqs/learn-medieval-welsh/

https://shop.dias.ie/product-category/books/welsh/mediaeval-and-modern-welsh-series/

https://shop.dias.ie/

Language/location related Mastodon Instances:

• https://ailbhean.co-shaoghal.net/
  • This server is aimed at Gaelic speakers. Tha am frithealaiche seo ann do luchd na Gàidhlig.
• https://mastodon.scot
  • A community primarily intended for (but not limited to) people in Scotland or who identify as Scottish.
• https://mastodon.ie/
  • Irish Mastodon
• https://toot.wales
  • Twt is the free and open community for Wales and the Welsh, at home and abroad.

https://www.saysomethingin.com/en/welsh-national-anthem-course/

https://nation.cymru/news/rob-mcelhenney-learning-welsh-and-can-sing-hen-wlad-fy-nhadau-perfectly/

hilarious!

BBC: Will a new name give Wales' sparkling wine cheers?. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-62967258

https://en.forum.saysomethingin.com/t/hills-and-mountains-in-welsh/36923

• twyn - hill(ock), mound, knoll, hummock, heap, peak, dune, molehill
• tyle - hill(ock) (with a suggestion of steepness)
• allt - hill(side), steep gradient, cliff, wooded slope
• bryn - hill, hillock, mountain
• gallt - slope, hill, cliff, rock, wooded hillside
• garth - mountain ridge, promontory hill, wooded slope
• rhiw - steep slope, hill(side) (more commonly used in the SW)
• bryncyn - hillock, knoll, tump, mound, heap
• poncen/ponc/poncyn - hillock, tump, knoll, rising ground (more commonly used in the N)
• trip - steep hill (relating to a road or path) (more commonly used in SE)
• banc - rising ground, hillock, ridge, slope
• moel - bare mountain, treeless hill, summit, rounded mountain
• mynydd - mountain, large hill
• ban (pl. bannau) - top, tip, summit, crest, peak, beacon, hill, mountain, bare hill

https://ymlaenwelsh.com/

rhoi<br /> gweithio<br /> meddwl<br /> i fi<br /> i ti<br /> yn galed<br /> am hynny<br /> Bydda i'n<br /> Fydda' i ddim yn<br /> Fory<br /> amdani<br /> diolch<br /> Byddi di'n...<br /> Fyddi di ddim yn...<br /> Fyddi di'n...?<br /> Byddaf, bydda i'n...<br /> Na (fyddaf), fydda'i ddim yn...<br /> Helo<br /> Bore da<br /> Ti'n iawn?<br /> Ydw, diolch yn fawr.<br /> Mae'n ddrwg 'da fi.<br /> Dw i ddim yn siarad Cymraeg yn dda iawn.<br /> Paid siarad Saesneg gyda fi, plîs.<br /> Ti'n siarad braidd yn glou.<br /> Siarada'n arafach, plîs.<br /> Siwd mae'r gwaith?<br /> Fel 'na mae.<br /> ...yndefe.<br /> Ti'n moyn coffi / dishgled o de?<br /> Dere 'mlaen 'te.<br /> 'Na ddigon!<br /> Mae isie i ni siarad Saesneg nawr!

Llaeth<br /> bara<br /> cig<br /> caws<br /> ci<br /> cath<br /> mae<br /> gyda<br /> ifanc<br /> hen<br /> heno<br /> y<br /> yr<br /> 'r<br /> Mae ... gyda fi / ti<br /> Does dim ... gyda fi / ti<br /> Oes ... gyda ti?<br /> Oes, mae ... gyda fi.<br /> Nag oes, does dim ... gyda fi.<br /> Mae isie i fi / ti...<br /> Oes isie i fi / ti...<br /> Oes, mae isie i fi...<br /> Nag oes, does dim isie i fi...

a<br /> ac<br /> ond<br /> neu<br /> yn dda<br /> yn barod<br /> yn hapus<br /> Wnest ti...<br /> Wnest ti ddim...<br /> Wnest ti...?<br /> Do, wnes i...<br /> Naddo, wnes i ddim...

To finish - cwpla<br /> To buy - prynu<br /> To come - dod<br /> To sleep - cysgu<br /> To take - cymryd<br /> To see - gweld<br /> I'm going to speak - Dw i'n mynd i siarad<br /> I'm not going to speak - Dw i ddim yn mynd i siarad<br /> You're going to speak - Ti'n mynd i siarad<br /> You're not going to speak - Ti ddim yn mynd i siarad<br /> I spoke - Wnes i siarad<br /> I didn't speak - Wnes i ddim siarad

How - sut<br /> What - beth<br /> Something - rhywbeth<br /> Nothing - dim byd<br /> Why - pam<br /> Because - achos<br /> Him - fe, e<br /> You're speaking - Ti'n siarad<br /> You're not speaking - Ti ddim yn siarad<br /> Are you speaking? Wyt ti'n siarad?<br /> Yes, I'm speaking - Yndw, dw i'n siarad<br /> No, I'm not speaking - Nac ydw, dw i ddim yn siarad

I'm trying - dwi'n trio<br /> I'm not trying - dwi ddim yn trio<br /> To like - hoffi<br /> To speak - siarad<br /> Welsh - Cymraeg<br /> To go - mynd<br /> To stay - aros<br /> To do - gwneud<br /> To say - dweud<br /> To be able - gallu<br /> To know - gwybod<br /> To want - moyn<br /> You're speaking - ti'n siarad

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnwelsh/comments/xsq3ga/good_welsh_learners_dictionary_with_entomologies/

https://www.welsh-dictionary.ac.uk/android-ios-apps/app-support/

https://ymlaenwelsh.com/2018/11/11/on-word-field-farming/

Creating world fields (groups of words related to a particular area or field of knowledge) can be helpful for acquiring vocabulary in a new language. There's no research here to back up the claim, but it's an interesting word game and method for familiarize oneself with a small area and acquire new words related to an area or various related stem words.

https://ymlaenwelsh.com/2020/08/31/my-top-6-welsh-dictionaries/

https://geiriaduracademi.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUbwSiXAWjY

ta ra - bye bye

We [the Welsh] are a magic people, constantly doing magic tricks which is why we need to say "ta da" all the time.

https://welearnwelsh.com/blog/weird-welsh-words/

https://welearnwelsh.com/

A fun little website from someone learning/sharing Welsh.

https://lingo.360.cymru/lingo-newydd/

https://360.cymru/

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-wales-62483610

A powerful fuckin' poem here.

https://forum.saysomethingin.com/t/next-step-from-lingo-newydd/36466

Suggestions for active reading to learn Welsh

Lingo Newydd: https://lingo.360.cymru/lingo-newydd/

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-61864756

see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Johnny

Not mentioned is the tradition of using common names with other job related nouns as a means of identifying people with careers. Eg: Johnny Butcher

see also: https://podcasts.apple.com/sn/podcast/episode-6-job-and-places-of-work/id274989284?i=1000366645645

—Patrick Mevel

Will you also be traveling and singing with y fari lwyd? 🐴💀

https://forum.saysomethingin.com/t/grasshoppers/36340

Variations of the word grasshopper in Welsh:<br /> * Ceiliog y gwair * Sioncyn y gwair * Robin sbonciwr * Sbonciwr y gwair * Ceiliog y rhedyn

Note that the last one translates as cockerel of the fern and is probably related to kilhog-raden (in Bretton) and kulyek reden (in Cornish).

The verb (y)sboncio means to spring/leap/jump<br /> thus sbonciwr is someone/something that springs, leaps or jumps and is also related to sboncen (the game squash).

gwair translates as grass

https://dysgucymraeg.cymru/

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnwelsh/comments/ul5g8j/how_hard_are_medievalrenaissance_welsh_texts_for/

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnwelsh/comments/uph7d4/songs_in_welsh/

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnwelsh/comments/uivpop/has_anyone_heard_the_new_adwaith_track_eto/

https://nation.cymru/culture/welsh-language-plaque-unveiled-at-dylan-thomas-birthplace/

Just in time for the International Dylan Thomas Day on May 14th!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ptel9C3Zhg

Modern celebrations of the Mari Lwyd which haven't had easy access to a horse skull to decorate have used a flat-pack cardboard version of a skull designed by David Pitt.

https://forum.artofmemory.com/t/what-language-s-are-you-studying/73190

I've been studying Welsh on and off now for just over a year.

I've been using a mix of Duolingo for it's easy user interface and it's built in spaced repetition. I like the way that it integrates vocabulary and grammar in a holistic way which focuses on both reading, writing, and listening.

However, I've also been using the fantastic platform Say Something in Welsh. This uses an older method of listening and producing based teaching which actually makes my brain feel a bit tired after practice. The focus here is solely on listening and speaking and forces the student to verbally produce the language. It's a dramatically different formula than most high school and college based courses I've seen and used over the years having taken 3 years of Spanish, 2 of French, and 2 of Latin.

The set up consists of the introduction of a few words which are then used in a variety of combinations to create full sentences. The instructors say a sentence in English and the listener is encouraged in just a few seconds to attempt to produce it in the target language (Welsh, in my case), then the instructor says the sentence in Welsh with a pause for the student to repeat it properly, another instructor says it in Welsh with a pause for a third repeat. This goes on for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. The end result is that the learner gets into the language much more quickly and can begin both understanding the spoken language as well as produce it much more rapidly than older school based methods (at least in my experience, though I have known some college language labs to use a much more limited version of a similar technique). Each lesson adds new material, but also reviews over older material in a spaced repetition format as well so you're always getting something new mixed in with the old to make new and interesting sentences for conversation.

SSiW also has modules for Manx, Cornish, Dutch, and Spanish.

I find that the two done hand in hand has helped me produce much faster results in language acquisition in an immersive manner than I have done previously and with much less effort.

https://forum.saysomethingin.com/t/could-we-have-a-thread-on-welsh-customs/4068

• robingoch
• hawthorn
• The Hamish Macbeth series By M.C.Beaton has superstitions of highlanders
• Mari Lwyd
• Siôn Corn
• Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru (1923) by J. Glyn Davies
• Folklore of West and Mid Wales by John Ceredig Davies
• Welsh Folk Customs by Trefor Owen
• Welsh Folklore and Folk-Custom by T Gwynn Jones
• Wirt Sykes including a volume on British Goblins
• John Rhys
• Welsh Folklore: Folktales & Legends of North Wales (1896) by Elias Owen
• Calan Mai

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_xFo6Hifzk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJyuBioq33I

Recorded in Tregaron(?) on Christmas Eve 1964, a wonderful example of the Welsh Midwinter Tradition of The Mari Lwyd. Usually performed around Christmas and New Year, this luck-bringing ritual has recently been enjoying a revival in some parts of Wales after becoming virtually extinct during the first part of the Twentieth Century.

The Mari Lwyd, an adorned horse's skull, is accompanied by several participants, who go from door to door, engaging in a light hearted 'battle of wits' through song with the occupant of the house, in the hope of gaining admittance and being rewarded with cake and ale!

Reminiscent of the idea of battle rap, but in a different cultural tradition.

"yn" (or it's contraction "'n") is a marker in Welsh to indicate that the action of a verb is in progress or unfinished.

Example: Dw i'n hoffi coffi.

https://www.duolingo.com/skill/cy/Present-1/tips-and-notes

The older Welsh words 'glas' and 'llwyd' designate both colors (green/blue and gray/brown respectively) but also indicate the idea of 'being alive' (like plants) or 'dead' (like rocks).

These words can sometimes be translated differently than the more modern words gwyrdd (green), glas (blue), llwyd (grey), brown (brown).

Irish is somewhat similar, where 'glas' is green, but usually for the less vivid greens of the natural world (seaweed might be called 'glas') versus artificial vivid green (the green on the Irish flag would be 'uaine'). However a 'madra glas' is not a green or blue dog, but a grey one.

Glasgow / Glaschu (the place name) means "green hollow".

Manuela Macedonia's research indicates that online learners who enact specific gestures as they learn words learn better and have longer retention versus simply hearing words. Students who mimic these gestures also learn better than those who only see the gestures and don't use them themselves.

How might this sort of teacher/avatar gesturing be integrated into online methods? How would students be encouraged to follow along?

Could these be integrated into different background settings as well to take advantage of visual memory?

Anecdotally, I remember some Welsh phrases from having watched Aran Jones interact with his cat outside on video or his lip syncing in the empty spaces requiring student responses. Watching the teachers lips while learning can be highly helpful as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Morris-Jones

https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/medieval-welsh

J.R.R. Tolkien purchased a copy of John Morris-Jones's (1864-1929) A Welsh Grammar when he was at Exeter.

https://archive.org/search.php?query=A%20Welsh%20grammar%20%3A%20historical%20and%20comparative

timestamp [8:13]

J.R.R. Tolkien indicated that Welsh fairy tales "had bright color but no sense". Perhaps this is because they served a cultural and mnemonic purpose and not necessarily a storytelling one.

1:00 minute mark

https://www.bangor.ac.uk/canolfanbedwyr/ap_geiriaduron.php.en

Over the years in academic settings I've picked up pieces of Spanish, French, Latin and a few odd and ends of other languages.

Six years ago we put our daughter into a dual immersion Japanese program (in the United States) and it has changed some of my view of how we teach and learn languages, a process which is also affected by my slowly picking up conversational Welsh using the method at https://www.saysomethingin.com/ over the past year and change, a hobby which I wish I had more targeted time for.

Children learn language through a process of contextual use and osmosis which is much more difficult for adults. I've found that the slowly guided method used by SSiW is fairly close to this method, but is much more targeted. They'll say a few words in the target language and give their English equivalents, then they'll provide phrases and eventually sentences in English and give you a few seconds to form them into the target language with the expectation that you try to say at least something, or pause the program to do your best. It's okay if you mess up even repeatedly, they'll say the correct phrase/sentence two times after which you'll repeat it again thus giving you three tries at it. They'll also repeat bits from one lesson to the next, so you'll eventually get it, the key is not to worry too much about perfection.

Things slowly build using this method, but in even about 10 thirty minute lessons, you'll have a pretty strong grasp of fluent conversational Welsh equivalent to a year or two of college level coursework. Your work on this is best supplemented with interacting with native speakers and/or watching television or reading in the target language as much as you're able to.

For those who haven't experienced it before I'd recommend trying out the method at https://www.saysomethingin.com/welsh/course1/intro to hear it firsthand.

The experience will give your brain a heavy work out and you'll feel mentally tired after thirty minutes of work, but it does seem to be incredibly effective. A side benefit is that over time you'll also build up a "gut feeling" about what to say and how without realizing it. This is something that's incredibly hard to get in most university-based or book-based language courses.

This method will give you quicker grammar acquisition and you'll speak more like a native, but your vocabulary acquisition will tend to be slower and you don't get any writing or spelling practice. This can be offset with targeted memory techniques and spaced repetition/flashcards or apps like Duolingo that may help supplement one's work.

I like some of the suggestions made in Lynne's post as I've been pecking away at bits of Japanese over time myself. There's definitely an interesting structure to what's going on, especially with respect to the kana and there are many similarities to what is happening in Japanese to the Chinese that she's studying. I'm also approaching it from a more traditional university/book-based perspective, but if folks have seen or heard of a SSiW repetition method, I'd love to hear about it.

Hopefully helpful by comparison, I'll mention a few resources I've found for Japanese that I've researched on setting out a similar path that Lynne seems to be moving.

Japanese has two different, but related alphabets and using an app like Duolingo with regular practice over less than a week will give one enough experience that trying to use traditional memory techniques may end up wasting more time than saving, especially if one expects to be practicing regularly in both the near and the long term. If you're learning without the expectation of actively speaking, writing, or practicing the language from time to time, then wholesale mnemotechniques may be the easier path, but who really wants to learn a language like this?

The tougher portion of Japanese may come in memorizing the thousands of kanji which can have subtly different meanings. It helps to know that there are a limited set of specific radicals with a reasonably delineable structure of increasing complexity of strokes and stroke order.

The best visualization I've found for this fact is the Complete Listing of the 214 Radicals and Major Variations from An Introduction to Japanese Kanji Calligraphy by Kunii Takezaki (Tuttle, 2005) which I copy below:

(Feel free to right click and view the image in another tab or download it and view it full size to see more detail.)

I've not seen such a chart in any of the dozens of other books I've come across. The numbered structure of increasing complexity of strokes here would certainly suggest an easier to build memory palace or songline.

I love this particular text as it provides an excellent overview of what is structurally happening in Japanese with lots of tidbits that are otherwise much harder won in reading other books.

There are many kanji books with various forms of what I would call very low level mnemonic aids. I've not found one written or structured by what I would consider a professional mnemonist. One of the best structured ones I've seen is A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters by Kenneth G. Henshall (Tuttle, 1988). It's got some great introductory material and then a numbered list of kanji which would suggest the creation of a quite long memory palace/journey/songline.

Each numbered Kanji has most of the relevant data and readings, but provides some description about how the kanji relates or links to other words of similar shapes/meanings and provides a mnemonic hint to make placing it in one's palace a bit easier. Below is an example of the sixth which will give an idea as to the overall structure.

I haven't gotten very far into it yet, but I'd found an online app called WaniKani for Japanese that has some mnemonic suggestions and built-in spaced repetition that looks incredibly promising for taking small radicals and building them up into more easily remembered complex kanji.

I suspect that there are likely similar sources for these couple of books and apps for Chinese that may help provide a logical overall structuring which will make it easier to apply or adapt one's favorite mnemotechniques to make the bulk vocabulary memorization easier.

The last thing I'll mention I've found, that's good for practicing writing by hand as well as spaced repetition is a Kanji notebook frequently used by native Japanese speaking children as they're learning the levels of kanji in each grade. It's non-obvious to the English speaker, and took me a bit to puzzle out and track down a commercially printed one, even with a child in a classroom that was using a handmade version. The notebook (left to right and top to bottom) has sections for writing a big example of the learned kanji; spaces for the "Kun" and "On" readings; spaces for the number of strokes and the radical pieces; a section for writing out the stroke order as it builds up gradually; practice boxes for repeated practice of writing the whole kanji; examples of how to use the kanji in context; and finally space for the student to compose their own practice sentences using the new kanji.

Regular use and practice with these can be quite helpful for moving toward mastery.

I also can't emphasize enough that regularly and actively watching, listening, reading, and speaking in the target language with materials that one finds interesting is incredibly valuable. As an example, one of the first things I did for Welsh was to find a streaming television and radio that I want to to watch/listen to on a regular basis has been helpful. Regular motivation and encouragement is key.

I won't go into them in depth and will leave them to speak for themselves, but two of the more intriguing videos I've watched on language acquisition which resonate with some of my experiences are:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0yGdNEWdn0
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox6MdRTc0yE

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/languages/welsh/croeso-beginners-welsh/content-section-0?active-tab=description-tab

http://www.colegcymraeg.ac.uk/en/resources/massiveopenonlinecoursesmoocs/

In doing some work with Japanese, I’ve come across a Chrome browser extension called Mainichi which shows me a flashcard-like image and the related word in English and Japanese (with both associated kana) every time I open a new browser tab. Because I open dozens to hundreds of browser tabs a day it’s an easy way to review and even learn new words. (It also reminds me that I ought to be working on my next lesson instead of surfing the internet. :smile:)

I’m curious if anyone has seen anything like this for Welsh beyond the more focused use of flashcard technologies like Anki, Mnemosyne, et al?

https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2021/02/welsh.html