An interesting explanation of why Japanese works the way it does

I don’t have the time to check it out well today, but giving it a cursory look, it seems similarly structured to Tae Kim’s guide. How would you recommend using this guide? Like as an addition to studying in general, a replacement for Tae Kim, a Linguistics approach to Japanese, or ?

Ignoring the unnecessary use of a word many will find offensive, uni- is really not a very productive prefix, which is probably why the vast majority of speakers don’t mind (and probably never thought about) the fact that it has a different meaning in the word unisex than in words like unicycle or unicorn. Also, in words like universe, I don’t expect the average English speaker to recognize uni- as an analyzable prefix because there is no transparent base.

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Perhaps this might help? In English, we have “wind,” which can mean like a breeze or like winding a clock or a winding staircase. Your experience with English helps you know which meaning is more common, even aside from context. Additionally, there are words like “big.” It could mean tall or fat. Even in English, we have to ask for clarification sometimes. What I would like to get across is that as you get better at any language, you’ll have a better idea of the more common uses of certain words and that you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for clarification. You can easily ask questions here or, if you’re speaking in real life, to the person you’re speaking with. When I’m not clear on an idea, I often ask, 「それは何ですか?」and people work with me to help me understand, even if they don’t speak much English. I’ve found across Japan that people are in general kind and want to communicate.

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If you’d like an example with a bit more actual English, I briefly talked about the kind of spelling changes you see from Latin to English (although some of them were already present in Latin alone)
https://community.wanikani.com/t/x/44859/3601

Knowing about how Chinese sounds work in Japanese is helpful to figuring out patterns. For example,

That 日 still comes にち, but k/t initial sounds will often convert to っ when the following consonant is the same. If I’m familiar with the kanji readings, I can correctly guess a good portion of the time how a word will be pronounced. That, in turn, helps me learn more easily.

The explanation OP shared won’t be to everyone’s tastes or learning styles. It’s not really possible to come up with a universal analogy that both holds meaning and is understandable to everyone.

@ShotgunLagoon already said what I was going to say anyway.

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Agreed. If the point is acquisition as efficiently as possible, then it’s superfluous. But if it’s part of the reason you’re learning the language in the first place, then it’s great that a resource like that exists.

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I recommend using it as a supplement primarily. Looking at the verb conjugation stuff is really useful for getting a window into the etymology of why verb conjugations work the way they do instead of just brute force memorization. In general, the guide is nice for that sort of thing, but its particularly useful for that. Also, the guide tends to be rather hard to penetrate at times, so I definitely don’t recommend it as your primary source, but it helps build some nice neurological pathways. I haven’t forgotten the conjugations since I got that knowledge.

Also, I’m really not a fan of Tae Kim’s guide, as you bring it up, due to it being regularly wrong. I haven’t caught Pomax’s being wrong yet.

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Friendship with Tae Kim ended. Now friends with Pomax

In all seriousness, thank you for a quick reply. Reading it made me check want to check Pomax out more. I got to the bit on pronunciation and I think my first Japanese Linguistics professor would approve of the author, so that’s all the further I need to make the jump. I had already heard about Tae Kim being wrong, but hadn’t found anything that was structurally similar enough to make me happy. Thank you for sharing such a resource!

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I have an impression that English isn’t your native language, so I don’t think you are being intentionally offensive.

@ShotgunLagoon wrote they aren’t a fan of the word “retard” but it’s not their pet peeve. This word has become an offensive term (just check a dictionary Retard Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster). And using offensive and profane language is against the community guidelines.

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