The complicated linguistics behind how the Maya talk about the past

[@CristiNeagu]

You should have these technical videos once in a while. They're good.

[@barbarajoseph-adam8337]

Agreed. “Teach us, Master Josh, for we have come from far and wide to learn at your altar of knowledge!”

[@CraftQueenJr]

I agree. It’s hard to find things like this presented in a manner that is actually understandable.

[@morganseppy5180]

I would love to have a technical playlist to refer to when I get confused by the regular language videos.

[@Khyranleander]

@@morganseppy5180 Agreed. While teaching us specific languages might be more than you can do in these short videos, clarifying the topics than cross languages (or even language families) would be very welcome.

[@NativLang]

Denser than usual but a nice payoff. When aspect comes up again, may this vid be our natural temporal reference point.

[@NativLang]

Also I updated the hurricane diagram so that it shows event times around a single topic time. Mentally cross out the old one from last time; this one should be clearer.

[@multiplysixbynine]

This was fantastic! I appreciated the depth of the explanation and came away feeling like I had understood - not merely glimpsed - an unfamiliar concept. I would certainly enjoy more technical videos of this form in addition to your fabulous stories.

[@bumpty9830]

Love the denser bits now and then. There are some hardcore nerds in your audience--embrace us. Topic suggestion: I've been studying Vietnamese, and the more I read about its system of Classifiers, the more intrigued I am. I recently found the paper linked below while searching the internet for a comprehensive list of Vietnamese classifiers, which apparently doesn't exist. The paper does have a table of 160 of them, though, in categories from "Collections of things in the shape of a pyramid" to "Written (distinct from oral) cultural, social, or artistic works." That latter category includes eight distinct classifiers, including the one I found in a news article classifying the noun "constitution" that sent me looking for such a table in the first place. Curiously, it's neither the classifier I've learned for "book," which is also on that list, nor the classifier for "newspaper," which is found instead under "Parts, 2-D, flat, square + width." pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2a15/0b206d7b5e17599eacf40b5051f1d5e2aa58.pdf Of course classifiers are far from unique to Vietnamese, making them a topic of fairly general linguistic interest.

[@martinhartecfc]

My God. I have read so much on viewpoint aspect over many years learning Spanish and teaching English and this is by far the clearest explanation I ever saw. Thank you so much!!!! I hope you consider covering lexical aspect someday. If Mayan languages distinguish a progressive from the imperfective, that could be a neat point of departure.

[@bluellamaslearnbeyondthele2456]

I really don't get what you're constantly apologising for being technical.

[@msclrhd]

Confused I be. Watch video then. Understanding follows.

[@minirop]

confused [prospective marker], watching [perfective marker], understand [terminative marker].

[@dolguth]

In Yoda voice, I hear your comment

[@apta9931]

Did read comment. Enjoyed. When finish writing, pressing like.

[@jcortese3300]

Worst haiku ever. Awesome comment, though. :-)

[@simonlow0210]

This is basically how tenseless languages works. We just add some sort of time marker like, later, yesterday, just now etc.

[@enricmm85]

Nativlang: Oh, no! I'm gonna release a technical video explaining abstract linguistic concepts! This is gonna be a disaster! Reaction of the audience: YEAH! A video on abstract linguistics! This is great! We want MOAR!

[@men_del12]

MOAAAAR

[@forregom]

MO,HA,HA,HAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHH

[@davidmauchly4689]

More I beg of You!

[@SFCvideography]

Right!!! Bring it!!!

[@Narokkurai]

I like your storytelling videos, but I also love getting the chance to learn real, contemporary linguistics. If you wanted to do more of these "didactic" videos, I wouldn't mind at all.

I second that. I think maybe a 3:1 or 4:1 proportion would be good. Besides, Josh's voice is so soothing, I could listen to him reciting the phone book.

[@PC_Simo]

@Narokkurai @Łukasz Golowanow Oh yeah, remember phonebooks? Good times. In all seriousness, though, I fully agree.

[@PJ-xs3jx]

the combination is ideal

[@beredentod]

I’ve been watching your videos for more than 2 years and you’ve made me fascinated about linguistics to such an extent that I qualified for the International Linguistics Olympiad 2019 (I know you made a video about it the other day). Thank you! You do a very good job on KZbin!

[@flynn4068]

Hey! So have I! What country are you representing?

[@jesusacuna309]

Congratulations!!!! I should have done it two years ago, but hey, I'm a linguistics major now, so I'm getting somewhere!

[@beredentod]

Flynn Germany, but I'm from Poland :)

[@beredentod]

Jesus Acuna Thanks!

[@NakimesisX]

@@beredentod Good job fellow krajan.

[@AJBlue98]

This was good, but it didn't start to click until the very end. With abstract concepts like these, it helps the most to have more concrete examples to flesh out the theory as we go along.

[@justinwhite2725]

I don't think I got it until the end when he gave an example using English.

[@mortenfransrud7676]

He could've explained everything by just using the last seconds of the video 🤣 but I appreciate the technical 😁

[@EddyScbr]

5:48 "The list of possible aspects can go on" as a Portuguese speaker, that was the bane of my middle school Grammar classes....

[@Mikeztarp]

Ai, sim! Eu estou aprendindo o português, e entendo ele muito bem, mas não falo bem porque a conjugação é chata por caramba. ^^ Por exemplo, o portugês é o único idioma que eu conhece que tem um subjuntivo futuro.

[@RodrigoDavy]

*aprendendo *chata pra caramba O espanhol tem Futuro do Subjuntivo, mas não é mais usado haha

[@PH7018c]

@@Mikeztarp ...spanish has it too..

[@Mikeztarp]

@@PH7018c Ah, verdad, pero es obsoleto, ¿no? No lo aprendí quando aprendí español en la escuela. @Rodrigo Davy Valeu pela correção. :)

[@somedragontoslay2579]

@@Mikeztarp No tan obsoleto, más bien técnico. Lo cual es raro, un tecnicismo gramatical. Lo usan mucho los abogados y áreas afines. Supongo que para evitar ambigüedades, como todos los tecnicismos.

[@ayyyyyylmao2001]

The surprise legit made me tear up, I am ashamed of being Mexican and not having a clue on pre hispanic languages. Thanks for your videos, NativLang.

[@NativLang]

No shame, there's time to learn. Thank you for watching, commenting and sharing emotion. ¡Un abrazo!

[@Artexerxes101]

That's not your fault and you shouldn't be ashamed. The people in power were the ones that devalued these languages and erased them from your history books. They made sure you wouldn't know anything about them.

[@crusaderACR]

@@Artexerxes101 That's such an ignorant assessment of post-colonial Hispanic politics. Is that what you were taught in school?

[@katakana1]

@@crusaderACR If you have an issue, then do one better instead

[@SilentSymphony5]

So good! I love your normal content, but this was fascinating too. It's funny how communicating is one of the most natural, simple things we do, but when we analyze it it's actually surprisingly complex.

[@dmcdouga07]

I think more examples would be helpful in videos like this, but I enjoyed this type of video a lot!

[@juliahenriques210]

This is one of the most beautiful linguistics classes I've ever had. No kidding. You were born for this kind of stuff.

[@funambolablu]

I have a Master in linguistics; your video always remind me about all the great things about linguistics and languages. I understood the previous video, too, but this was also great - I used it as a test, in order to remember everything I knew about aspect. I'm off to read the article you quoted ;) thank you for giving linguistics a place in the real world, and not just in academic dusty places (or Google offices! :p), thank you for making linguistics something understandable and fascinating also to non-linguists! :)

[@NativLang]

Ooh, enjoy it! I'm sure you will. Thank you; I'm glad I am able, at times, to show how much of a place language has in our world.

[@vipcesh]

These comments appear to be engaging in a punctuation competition.

[@mvalonso75]

Now I got it better. Before, it was a "kind of sort of I get it", but I let it go because I assumed I wasn't intelligent/smart enough to understand it (probably is true). So I'm grateful you took the time to "spell it" and go over it again.

[@rozazb8138]

I felt like that too, for some reason

[@NwahWAttitude]

I absolutely loved this, and while it might not be exactly what a lot of your audience are looking for, it's precisely what I'm constantly wishing there was more of on youtube. This stuff is fascinating and I think the reception to the last video was more about the mind-bending nature of aspect vs tense than anything else

[@MrMageofHeart]

As a Linguistics Major in University at the moment, denser more technical videos like this make me really happy. Deictic Tense was not a topic that we went over in detail when we discussed deixis in my classes. As a lover of grammar and language-creation, learning about possible ways of going without things as seemingly universal as tense in a language is a marvelous tool for creativity.

[@thecia9498]

Honestly, you've increased my appreciation for forieng languages and are currently changing my tactics to learn a language.

[@elvisanselmi109]

Where's Netflix or AmazonPrime to hire this guy to make a documentary???

[@barbarajoseph-adam8337]

I kinda don’t want them to find him - he’d be too busy to teach and entertain us if they do. He’s my favourite creator on Patreon, very engaging and active. I’m a selfish bastard, yes.

[@elvisanselmi109]

@@barbarajoseph-adam8337 Let the man make money, he deserves it.

[@barbarajoseph-adam8337]

Elvis Anselmi I said “kinda”; I’ve already sacrificed three goats and six pigeons at the altar of Ganesh, praying for his success.

[@thesupercat7580]

Let's make him bigger so he could have more creative freedom (:

[@beredentod]

Thank you for this video! Last time I wrote a comment that I haven’t understood the difference between aspects and tenses and I’m very glad you’ve done a video on this! It’s a real proof you care about your viewers! Great work ;)

[@justfeelingirie]

The surprise at the end really tied up what little I was able to understand. Great video! I would love to see more. Maybe a seperate series or channel for these academic deep dive explanations?? I subscribed to this channel. I was subscribing to this channel.

[@DerMessiasderSatire]

YES! The next video about the Maya. I'm incredibly fascinated by the culture and especially the language. I absolutely love languages, I just can't get enough 😁. You are very nice to listen to, you make all of it even more interesting to learn! Keep it up. BYEEEE

[@NativLang]

Awesome; I will!

[@DerMessiasderSatire]

@@NativLang ✌🏻😊👍🏻

[@eurosaamie]

Thank you for the follow-up! That was enlightening. I know it may be difficult, but I just had an idea: it would probably be very interesting for you to do a video on Sign Language.

[@oliverraven]

Agreed on both points... as long as you mean specifically *British* Sign Language, of course. :)

[@columbus8myhw]

I vote for American Sign Language, personally. :P Or Nicaraguan Sign Language (ISN), actually

[@PC_Simo]

@columbus8myhw Nicaraguan Sign Language would be interesting.

[@SFCvideography]

Oooooooooooo!!!

[@BlameTaw]

This type of explanatory content is absolutely fantastic, especially when combined with your other storytelling approach on the same topic. I would love more of these in-depth explanations of the concepts you introduce in your other videos!

[@nickzardiashvili624]

This was amazing! You've listened to your viewers and responded adequately. Now I understand the topic much better and boy is this fascinating. Thank you!

[@unvergebeneid]

I was one of the people hopelessly confused after the last video but now, I got it! Thanks for taking your... time with us!

[@jordantierney6495]

I like it. When storytelling, describing everything relative to the event that you’re talking about would draw you more into the story and give you a more vivid experience (I think so anyway). I also think it would eliminate some of the ambiguity that English tenses can have.

[@swetheutte]

Interesting. There seems to be some similarities between how Maya talks about time and how most sign languages talk about spaces. Without having special words needed to specify time or space where Maya creates time through topics set in the conversation many sign languages establishes physical topic spaces within the signing space ahead that all relate to different locations needed in the conversation. Sign languages are cool, how they use physical space to their advantage which sets them far apart from spoken language, do consider covering them!

[@swetheutte]

(Or maybe I complete misunderstood the video and it’s not similar at all, also very possible 😅)

[@kevindowney5256]

You would have fun with Thai. I used to teach at a Thai university and offered a class on how to write more effectively in English. I had to broach the subject of English tenses to tenseless Thai language speakers. In Thai, the speaker's perspective never changes; s/he is always in the present and speak only about the flow of time. This stationary perspective is mirrored by set verb forms that never change (unlike Mayan). The verb /kin/ to eat is always "kin" and aspect is shown through words that surround it in the sentence. Their use of aspect is extremely rich and complex. I would explain that English tenses shifted perspective by saying "imagine you and I are in last Wednesday ( or next Thursday), this is the flow of time that I, as the narrator, see from there." Within the shifting perspective, English aspects are incredibly simple, especially compared to Thai. We only have progressive, perfect, both, and neither. What is interesting is how the verbs function differently in these two languages. Thai verbs are weak within the sentence; they require that the other parts of the sentence tell it what to do through aspect words. English verbs are strong; they arrogate meaning into their aspect/tense structure and tell the sentence what to do. (Russian verbs are even stronger.) Now, every language is capable of expressing everything it needs to as a cultural medium for information. However, some languages are better at certain things. Thai is rich in narrative. It's broad range of aspect plays with relations through time beautifully. English verbs, with their imagination and shifting perspective, are better at explaining complex systems of cause and effect, and the subtle possibilities that can cause a system to change. Tenses allow triangulation of time and perspective that can aid in analysts, and give English a compact way of expressing all this. One last related point--Thai struggles with expressing counterfactuals. Thai verbs lack moods. The language beautifully expresses what it knows is occurring, but must use a lot of circumlocution to express what is not. To drive this home with mt students, I would ask them to translate this Beatles lyric from "I've Just Seen a Face" into Thai: Had it been another day I might've looked the other way And I'd have never been aware But as it is I'll dream of her tonight Nobody ever could render it cleanly into Thai. The language manages subjunctives like counterfactuality badly. This is why they has so much trouble with the shifting perspective of English tenses.

[@tazzyhyena6369]

I think you did a wonderful job at explaining all of this in a natural and digestible manner.

[@Amehtta]

As someone working on a nativistic conlang that makes use of aspect and mood, but not tense, these last two videos have been a huuuuuge help in approaching some of the problems I've been having wrapping my head around the concept, and pointed out some flaws in my (tense-using-native-language-perspective) approach I hadn't even noticed I was making. Thanks a ton, and keep up the great work.

[@Eruntano42]

Loved this type of video. Keep it up.

[@jshortohlongrp]

I've never heard the perfect and imperfect described like this! I'm definitely going to be looking into that when I resume my language learning. I'd love seeing more involved videos like this.

[@jt....]

Thanks! It definitely cleared things up. It was more technical, but the more in-depth explanation and the slower pace both helped me understand!

[@LittleWaffle]

Wow, that gave food for thought! Thank you for making videos on such interesting and original topics 😊

[@Whobgobblin]

Actually this may be my favorite video yet, I had to skip back and forth and rewatch it many times but it was really rewarding when I finally felt like I more or less understood it! The symbols used in the diagrams were very helpful for conceptualizing it for me

[@apollotiger]

Thank you for this video! Perfective vs. imperfective aspect was one of the tricky bits that I never quite wrapped my head around when I was learning Russian. I didn’t expect to understand Russian better after watching a video about Maya, but here we are.

[@PC_Simo]

For me, as a native Finnish-speaker, Russian aspects were very intuitive, as Finnish aspects work the same way 🙂.

[@MediumDSpeaks]

Dude I feel like you just uploaded! This makes me so happy! Updates: I'm creating a lesson plan for the English class I am teaching to Chinese students right now. Masters is on hold as I've been working as a freelance writer for several KZbin channels and mine is beginning to grow so I hope to make it a career. Still, I use linguistic skills everyday. I rewatched your video on relative systems last night! Hope you're well. Try and make it to Vidcon next year, it's a blast!

[@CantipSweeny]

This reminded me of studying french in high school, and having to learn the imperfect tense, and our teacher always described it as "a thing happened, could it still be happening? Then it's imperfect" Great video

[@eomguel9017]

Not that your last video wasn't good, but with this detailed explanation it was much clearer. Congrats, excellent job!

[@BG_NC]

Thank you so much for doing your part in making Native languages more accessible.

[@incognitiously]

I love the technical as much as the story. More of these videos would be very appreciated.

[@vipe_toutonche]

I like the technical! I don't need to understand every single word to still be able to get a much deeper understanding and answer my own questions.

[@DerHimmelIstRot]

This video is wonderful. Your explanation is clear without being boring, your examples are varied without being overwhelming. Definitely one of my favourite videos on your channel! Thank you for making it! :)

[@arribalaschivas91]

This was awesome and I need more of this type of breaking down of complex linguistics

[@Corey-dk3xi]

This was one of the clearest explanations of aspect I've had the pleasure to hear. Amazing. Thank you for the work you do!

[@miskogwanredfeather5135]

Please some native american languages like ojibwe, navajo etc. It would be great

[@barbarajoseph-adam8337]

Oh, great idea! Yes, please!!

[@pianorover]

Guarani!

[@Cuix]

Agreed, though in fairness Yucatec and Nahuatl are also Native American

[@miskogwanredfeather5135]

@@Cuix yeah. But you know what I mean

[@RedStefan]

Maya is native American language, you should have said some More Native American language would be great.

[@victorthevictor1976]

Thanks for explaining this after the last video. I think it would be cool to see a video about an ancient language like Egyptian or a reconstructed one like P.I.E

[@julystargaryen9452]

#tea

[@MrMageofHeart]

I could go in on an Egyptian or Sanskrit video, that would be so neat

[@procrastinator99]

This was fantastic! So glad to have your vids back, I really love this channel. And feel free to get as technical as you want!

[@ArkhBaegor]

Definitely cleared things up, thanks

[@jessetingle9055]

The previous video was intriguing because I had no clue about what was going on. Consequently, this explanation is so very satisfying.

[@MarcelBal15]

This is an amazing channel. Keep the linguistics videos coming

[@uncabob214]

Having watched both videos back to back I can say that this was much harder to follow than normal, but very, very interesting.

[@symphonyofpaint]

I had to watch this video like 4 times to understand the basics of what he saying. Fascinating.

[@InvisibleTower]

9:18 "She walked in," the jaguar purred.

[@beezany]

Thanks! This video was much clearer and simpler than the previous one, and more interesting to me.

[@R21EMAN]

I just wanted to thank you for this video because I'm currently learning Russian and I was having a lot of trouble understanding exactly the perfective and imperfective idea but the way that you explained it was really helpful!

[@felixeverett1252]

Not only did you explain Temporal Anaphora in Maya well, but you finally helped me make sense of what "aspect" actually is!

[@gammazzz3894]

This video was great! I am learning mayan and will be watching this video over and over again to let the information saturate

[@newenglandgreenman]

Fascinating. This totally held my interest. I’d be happy to watch more of these.

[@Centurion13]

This was great, thanks. As much as I enjoyed and was fascinated by the concept in the previous video, it never quite clicked fully. With a little bit more background information from this video I had a very satisfying "Aha!" moment when it all came together.

[@Hecatonicosachoron]

This is so much better than the previous video on the topic! It makes complete sense now... the last one not as much

[@cobyobrien9036]

this is the best video i have found explaining how aspect can be used instead of tense, thanks for helping me out

[@HerrHeltcel]

I think more technical videos like this are neat! Obviously, not every topic needs this, but I'll admit that I was left with more questions than answers from your last video and this cleared a lot of things up.

[@pedro85364]

Awesome video! The technical terms and aspects are often cloudy to amateurs like myself. More videos like this would be great for those entering the world of linguistics!

[@masonfeagan8678]

This video is amazing and as a theoretical linguistic, I really enjoy your discussions

[@dukereg]

Very good that you revisited to explain this. It was not clear before.

[@nanalarrosa]

I loved this video. A bit denser, yes, but well explained, and with cool visual aids that really worked. Languages are fascinating and this video made me really happy, so thank you!

[@professorracc.9780]

I've had somewhat of an advanced understanding of linguistics for a long time, but this really did make me understand tenses and aspects a lot better. Excellent video.

[@gradh3123]

This is still melting my mind but I feel much much closer to understanding it now, thank you!

[@kernfel]

Thank you, much clearer this time around!

[@vipcesh]

You explain well, so I understand. Please make more.

[@nomansland5113]

You are a brilliant educator and you deserve your technical fancy videos. You do you

[@qxtr5853]

Really like this kind of video. It's one of recent favorites!

[@RadioFarSide]

Yet another brilliant video about a language that mystifies me - especially the numbers. I recommend this channel to all my language students to get them interested in just how fun and fascinating languages can be. With profound thanks for your efforts!

[@msgnomi9727]

That was really helpful! Definitely helps clarify the last video.

[@PC_Simo]

I’ve been thinking that if I should ever make another conlang, I’d probably use tones for tenses, or even better, for aspects, like: • ”do” (neutral tone) = do (in general) • ”dó” (rising tone) = begin doing • ”dō” (high tone) = be doing • ”dò” (falling tone) = finish doing • ”dô” (arching tone) = do entirely (perfective) • ”dǒ” (bouncing tone) = do repeatedly Seems nice and intuitive, right? 🙂

[@emmanuelmacron4]

Wow

[@PC_Simo]

@@emmanuelmacron4 Thanks 😊.

[@peterflom6878]

Explaining is good and you do it well. You should do more of it. I love your videos

[@arielhyla]

This video is truly a great follow up to the other. It answered the questions I was left with

[@alexdukhan]

more like this man! loved the nitty-gritty linguistics. its so darn interesting!

[@simonsturmer9172]

The complexity level here is totally worth it 💪

[@barbarahouk1983]

I follow bc you are ALWAYS interesting. Linguistics is a huge topic and I had an introduction in college. I am a retired Psychiatrist (MD), unfortunately it was a forced retirement by bacterial meningitis with two strokes. I still do continuing education in many areas.

[@GordonWellman]

I enjoy you usual style for casual listening, but this in depth explanation of an interesting (and complex!) topic was amazing. Explained well and beautifully presented.

[@DavidLayM]

I really liked the combo of the first vid being so high level and narrative and this one going deeper into the subject. I probably got 20% of it (languages are just a mild interest right now) but was highly intriguing and informative. I probably will come back and watch it again as my understanding evolves :)

[@Nalikaplook]

As a Thai native speaker, I can understand this so easily. :v In Thai, 'where did you go?' is 'go where come' (ไปไหนมา/pai nai ma). Ps. Speaking from a girl who has lived in Korea for two years, I don't think that Korean is lack of tense marking. It has way more tense marking than Thai language and it makes me really confuse.

[@the-human-being]

Wow!!!!! What an amazing video I’ve always kind of understood aspect but never quite like this Really did shed light Thank you so much!!!

Thanks for the followup video, it did clear things up more. In the original, I did understand how tenseless could work, but not exactly how it did. By the way, I love your stories, but I did love this other style as well, very much. Please consider having more videos like this for us. We love you

[@kirstenwhitworth8079]

I got it the first time; nevertheless, this was very well done. Thanks! I enjoy the storytelling videos, but I really appreciate the descriptive discussions, too. They offer a view with a key/legend into different perceptions of the universe.

[@ChanduKale]

Complex. Thanks for opening my eyes to a different possibility of expressing time.

[@PedroGeaquinto]

This graph thing for expressing time helps a lot.

[@billepixnet]

Great video.. I watched both. I am 68 years old and decided to go back to college. I took a class in Basic English Grammar taught by a linguist.. I was totally confused.. However after watching your videos many aspects of the course have become clear. By the way my father was Mexico.. Genetics

[@Kaulusiin]

The original paper is indeed very hard to follow for amateurs, and this video turned out to be extremely helpful. You shouldn't be afraid of getting a bit technical at times, even though the material is more complicated, it's still comprehensible in one run.

[@PC_Simo]

Finnish also has that temporal anaphora; but, thanks to our non-finite clauses, it’s even more streamlined than in English: _”Hän tuli paikalle. Jaguaari kehräsi.”_ _”Hän tuli paikalle jaguaarin kehrätessä.”_ 🇫🇮

[@angelucand]

I speak Mayan language, I tried to make this line of time in my last class but l found it a challenge because one needs a way of explaining as a specialist in linguistics and l am not. Thank you for this explanation. Niiboolal yuum!

[@brandoncalvert8379]

thank you so much! this is so cool. I have always loved mayan history

[@TheViolaBuddy]

Oh wow, this made so much sense. I actually would gladly welcome more of these in-depth but accessible looks into more complicated linguistic ideas like this. Sometimes, purely storytold videos kind of feel like they're missing something, like there's some big body of knowledge that we're only getting a glimpse of through your videos - which of course is true, even for an "in-depth" video like this one (you say yourself that this video is based on a dense 40-page paper; a 10-minute video isn't going to explain everything about the paper itself and the prerequisite knowledge needed to understand it), but at least it doesn't feel like we're missing out on something. But yeah, basically, it's not that Maya has no sense of time; it's that Maya's sense of time is set relative to events and not to the present - this is the difference between languages like English and languages like Maya, and in turn also the difference between tense and aspect. Those are terms that I hear sometimes and didn't really understand - people say all the time for example that Chinese has no tenses and a word like 了 marks not past tense but a perfect aspect, and I was mystified at what the difference between them was, because in English (and French, the other language I've been learning) we tend to roll this whole idea into one and call it tense. Also, I didn't realize until now you put a longer list of credits and additional notes in the descriptions of your videos. That's great; thanks for doing that!

[@joefrew1614]

I really enjoyed how you explained the way Mayans modify their verbs in a way that does not use time tenses. You’re a true linguist, dude

[@agent_k9508]

Hey man, I know relatively nothing about parts of language, but I want you to know that I loved the last Maya video and the way you used story telling to explain. I also love this video of further technical explaination, even if that seems more boring to you. I can tell by your voice that you're down about the comments (or maybe something additional on top of that). I just want you to know that critiques of certain aspects of your videos don't describe what your channel is or what you're trying to accomplish with it. You get excited about the history and story-related reasons for language differences and I love that about your channel! :) You get to decide what the purpose to your videos are, and if you're not satisfied with the results or the confusion afterward, you get to decide what was missing and what needs tweeking. You've got this, bro. Your trade and your art are allowed to exist in the way you are passionate about them. Your channel is allowed to be both "you" and growing, learning how to help others understand. Keep on rocking it. :)

[@ProactiveYellow]

Very nicely done. Perhaps as a general rule, when dealing with complex language subjects, you can make a main video that introduces it in that classic nativlang style, then a more technical video that can hold the nitty gritty bits that don't fit into a narrative form

[@DeRien8]

I mostly got it the first time, but this video helped with grasping the mechanics a little better though. It's also super cool to see comments that I remember scrolling through and reading being featured! Makes the experience feel more real; so often when videos feature comments, the comments section was so huge I hadn't seen said features.

[@mikeyking3670]

Loved the technicality of this one!