Learning Apupiwe: a guide for English speakers§
This guide is for English speakers. The full rules are in the language reference. Here you'll find the order to learn them in, the parts English makes hard, and how to practise.
Before you start§
The language is small and unfinished. It has 483 root words and 23 borrowed international words, plus the number words and the words of the optional senary (base-6) measurement system. On top of those come 61 one-syllable grammar words and the two-syllable ones listed in section 13 of the reference. Your vocabulary will hit its ceiling quickly, and that's normal here. When there's no word for something, you describe it. Describing is the core skill and the normal way to talk, and lesson 11 teaches it.
Nothing changes shape. There are no verb endings, no plurals you have to add, no "a" or "the", no gender and nothing irregular. Almost all the difficulty is in sounds, word order and numbers.
The language has very few speakers so far, so a practice partner is hard to find. An AI chat assistant does the job well: give it the reference and ask it to talk with you at your level, correct you and explain.
When you hit a gap, something you can't find a way to say, please report it. The language grows through real use, so every gap you find is useful.
How to study§
This plan fits into 15 to 20 minutes a day.
| Week | Lessons | Alongside |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1–4 | the 58 most common words, marked 5 and 4 in the Common column of the dictionary |
| 2 | 5–8 | the grammar-word table, starting with the little words that look like English from lesson 6 |
| 3 | 9–10, numbers and time | count things aloud every day |
| 4 on | 11–14 | the next 176 words, marked 3 in the Common column, and short conversations with a practice partner |
Three habits matter more than the schedule. Say everything aloud: reading silently trains your eyes, and you want to train your mouth.
Use spaced repetition for words. The word list (a tab-separated file) imports straight into Anki: map the gloss column to the front of the card and form to the back, and start with tiers 5 and 4. The grammar words work the same way.
And make your own sentences early, even wrong ones, and try them out on a practice partner.
Lessons§
- Lesson 1: Sounds
- Lesson 2: First sentences
- Lesson 3: Describing words come after
- Lesson 4: Not, questions, answers and commands
- Lesson 5: Pronouns
- Lesson 6: Little words that look like English
- Lesson 7: Of, at, to, from, with
- Lesson 8: Being polite, and everyday phrases
- Lesson 9: Numbers
- Lesson 10: Time
- Lesson 11: Making words you don't have
- Lesson 12: Longer sentences
- Lesson 13: Can, must, maybe
- Lesson 14: Putting it together
- Where to go next