Justin Douglas
@ductusamongus.bsky.social
Language nerd /iːᶻ/ > /ð̠˕ˠ/ • runner • former musician and translator
Developer of the best-ever Russian dictionary for learners @ slovarish.com
Developer of the best-ever Russian dictionary for learners @ slovarish.com
My Colemak skills have progressed to the point where I am losing the ability to type fast in QWERTY (or I need to look at the keyboard often) and Rulemak is becoming easier than ЯШЕРТЫ
July 19, 2025 at 11:34 AM
My Colemak skills have progressed to the point where I am losing the ability to type fast in QWERTY (or I need to look at the keyboard often) and Rulemak is becoming easier than ЯШЕРТЫ
I posted about my app on r/russian and the trolls wasted no time in coming after me 🙄 I probably should have posted in the middle of the night UTC+7 (morning in US, evening in Russia), but still… kind of a shame because there are some genuinely helpful and knowledgeable native speakers on r/russian
July 11, 2025 at 10:04 AM
I posted about my app on r/russian and the trolls wasted no time in coming after me 🙄 I probably should have posted in the middle of the night UTC+7 (morning in US, evening in Russia), but still… kind of a shame because there are some genuinely helpful and knowledgeable native speakers on r/russian
I get this on the computer:
July 7, 2025 at 2:54 PM
I get this on the computer:
Go to the gear, then “soundtrack” or something similar should be an option, then “ABC (original)”
I have my YouTube in Swedish so I don’t know the exact wording
I have my YouTube in Swedish so I don’t know the exact wording
July 7, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Go to the gear, then “soundtrack” or something similar should be an option, then “ABC (original)”
I have my YouTube in Swedish so I don’t know the exact wording
I have my YouTube in Swedish so I don’t know the exact wording
using regex to find likely equivalence classes among Russian etymological/morphological roots in my dataset.
example:
медвед, медведь, медвеж, медвежь
this is the kind of stuff I'm good at—too bad there's not much room in the NLP field for it anymore
#langsky
example:
медвед, медведь, медвеж, медвежь
this is the kind of stuff I'm good at—too bad there's not much room in the NLP field for it anymore
#langsky
June 22, 2025 at 8:46 AM
using regex to find likely equivalence classes among Russian etymological/morphological roots in my dataset.
example:
медвед, медведь, медвеж, медвежь
this is the kind of stuff I'm good at—too bad there's not much room in the NLP field for it anymore
#langsky
example:
медвед, медведь, медвеж, медвежь
this is the kind of stuff I'm good at—too bad there's not much room in the NLP field for it anymore
#langsky
I most certainly did 😁
June 16, 2025 at 10:18 AM
I most certainly did 😁
Several years ago I remember saying to myself “No more new alphabets!” And then I learned the Georgian, Thai, and Cyrillic alphabets (and forgot the first two).
Now I’m tempted by Khmer but man the iOS keyboard soft keys are so small 😭 how does anyone type accurately in Khmer?! #langsky
Now I’m tempted by Khmer but man the iOS keyboard soft keys are so small 😭 how does anyone type accurately in Khmer?! #langsky
June 16, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Several years ago I remember saying to myself “No more new alphabets!” And then I learned the Georgian, Thai, and Cyrillic alphabets (and forgot the first two).
Now I’m tempted by Khmer but man the iOS keyboard soft keys are so small 😭 how does anyone type accurately in Khmer?! #langsky
Now I’m tempted by Khmer but man the iOS keyboard soft keys are so small 😭 how does anyone type accurately in Khmer?! #langsky
Hey #langsky, I recently finished the core work on my Russian-English dictionary app for Russian learners, and after 9 months of tireless work, it’s finally time to move toward deployment and a soft launch. Here’s some screenshots to whet your appetite!
June 3, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Hey #langsky, I recently finished the core work on my Russian-English dictionary app for Russian learners, and after 9 months of tireless work, it’s finally time to move toward deployment and a soft launch. Here’s some screenshots to whet your appetite!
This is what my Russian learning journey has been like so far. Some really great 🤯books on the last two topics are:
- Aspect:
Forsyth, “A Grammar of Aspect” (1970)
Paducheva, “Семантические исследования” (1996)
- Словообразование: Townsend, “Russian Word-Formation” (1968)
#langsky
- Aspect:
Forsyth, “A Grammar of Aspect” (1970)
Paducheva, “Семантические исследования” (1996)
- Словообразование: Townsend, “Russian Word-Formation” (1968)
#langsky
May 10, 2025 at 6:23 AM
This is what my Russian learning journey has been like so far. Some really great 🤯books on the last two topics are:
- Aspect:
Forsyth, “A Grammar of Aspect” (1970)
Paducheva, “Семантические исследования” (1996)
- Словообразование: Townsend, “Russian Word-Formation” (1968)
#langsky
- Aspect:
Forsyth, “A Grammar of Aspect” (1970)
Paducheva, “Семантические исследования” (1996)
- Словообразование: Townsend, “Russian Word-Formation” (1968)
#langsky
📢 I have almost completed the Herculean task of aligning dictionary entries between Russian Wiktionary, English Wiktionary, and a print dictionary from 1959 (Русско-английский словарь Смирницкого).
I registered the domain name for my dictionary app last week. Exciting times! #langsky
I registered the domain name for my dictionary app last week. Exciting times! #langsky
April 21, 2025 at 11:19 AM
📢 I have almost completed the Herculean task of aligning dictionary entries between Russian Wiktionary, English Wiktionary, and a print dictionary from 1959 (Русско-английский словарь Смирницкого).
I registered the domain name for my dictionary app last week. Exciting times! #langsky
I registered the domain name for my dictionary app last week. Exciting times! #langsky
Blast from the past—I forgot about these graphs I made (in GraphViz/Python) a couple years ago showing Russian verb families. I manually made about 50 of these.
#langsky
#langsky
April 8, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Blast from the past—I forgot about these graphs I made (in GraphViz/Python) a couple years ago showing Russian verb families. I manually made about 50 of these.
#langsky
#langsky
Last year I got into Western calligraphy for a bit. Here are some pages from my practice notebooks. Roman capitals are considered timeless and beautiful but also advanced & high 難易度.
I also experimented with adapting Caroline minuscule letterforms to Russian.
I also experimented with adapting Caroline minuscule letterforms to Russian.
March 23, 2025 at 12:06 AM
Last year I got into Western calligraphy for a bit. Here are some pages from my practice notebooks. Roman capitals are considered timeless and beautiful but also advanced & high 難易度.
I also experimented with adapting Caroline minuscule letterforms to Russian.
I also experimented with adapting Caroline minuscule letterforms to Russian.
Amazing old 📕 for teaching 🇸🇪 as a foreign lang, "Säg det på svenska" (Say it in Swedish) from 1978, full of vintage vibes!
Also has old maps, complete w/USSR and old Central Asian city names (Bishkek < Frunze, Almaty < Alma-Ata, Astana < Tselinograd)
Can't find audio tho 😭
#langsky #retro
Also has old maps, complete w/USSR and old Central Asian city names (Bishkek < Frunze, Almaty < Alma-Ata, Astana < Tselinograd)
Can't find audio tho 😭
#langsky #retro
February 26, 2025 at 12:58 AM
After months of database drudgery, it's nice to be able to work on creative stuff again. Today I played with logo ideas for the app. This is the winner so far.
Thanks to Alexei for suggesting "Щ" as the signature letter. (Others I have tried: Я, Ж, Ы)
Thanks to Alexei for suggesting "Щ" as the signature letter. (Others I have tried: Я, Ж, Ы)
February 25, 2025 at 4:16 PM
After months of database drudgery, it's nice to be able to work on creative stuff again. Today I played with logo ideas for the app. This is the winner so far.
Thanks to Alexei for suggesting "Щ" as the signature letter. (Others I have tried: Я, Ж, Ы)
Thanks to Alexei for suggesting "Щ" as the signature letter. (Others I have tried: Я, Ж, Ы)
As a musically motivated learner, I’m glad there is so much cool 🎶 in Swedish for 🍎 🎶 to recommend me (especially compared to Russian, where most of the popular stuff isn’t my taste).
It’s mostly been recent poppy stuff but out of nowhere I got this gem from 1973 with super easy lyrics! #langsky
It’s mostly been recent poppy stuff but out of nowhere I got this gem from 1973 with super easy lyrics! #langsky
February 24, 2025 at 8:36 AM
As a musically motivated learner, I’m glad there is so much cool 🎶 in Swedish for 🍎 🎶 to recommend me (especially compared to Russian, where most of the popular stuff isn’t my taste).
It’s mostly been recent poppy stuff but out of nowhere I got this gem from 1973 with super easy lyrics! #langsky
It’s mostly been recent poppy stuff but out of nowhere I got this gem from 1973 with super easy lyrics! #langsky
Still can’t get over the fact that I got Mullvad VPN for reasons unrelated to learning Swedish but it just so happened to switch all my YT (& podcast) ads to 🇸🇪
I’m too beginner to know what they’re selling but I do appreciate the captions on this one and MAN what a cool-sounding language #langsky
I’m too beginner to know what they’re selling but I do appreciate the captions on this one and MAN what a cool-sounding language #langsky
February 16, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Still can’t get over the fact that I got Mullvad VPN for reasons unrelated to learning Swedish but it just so happened to switch all my YT (& podcast) ads to 🇸🇪
I’m too beginner to know what they’re selling but I do appreciate the captions on this one and MAN what a cool-sounding language #langsky
I’m too beginner to know what they’re selling but I do appreciate the captions on this one and MAN what a cool-sounding language #langsky
As shown to non-US/non-Mexican users this morning (I’m accessing this from Vietnam) 🤦🏻♂️
February 11, 2025 at 2:55 AM
As shown to non-US/non-Mexican users this morning (I’m accessing this from Vietnam) 🤦🏻♂️
Refining the RU verb analysis. The graph shows the models where >=10 families of verbs conjugate like that model; the table shows the rest. "Rank" is the freq. of the model verb.
Frequent verbs often serve as models for few others & so feel like Spanish irregular verbs (but are actually regular)
Frequent verbs often serve as models for few others & so feel like Spanish irregular verbs (but are actually regular)
February 4, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Refining the RU verb analysis. The graph shows the models where >=10 families of verbs conjugate like that model; the table shows the rest. "Rank" is the freq. of the model verb.
Frequent verbs often serve as models for few others & so feel like Spanish irregular verbs (but are actually regular)
Frequent verbs often serve as models for few others & so feel like Spanish irregular verbs (but are actually regular)
Been on Bluesky for a few weeks and neglected to upload a banner pic. Enjoy this #Soviet mosaic featuring the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, on the wall of School #110, Taras Shevchenko street, Tashkent, Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 taken during my #Kazakhstan – #Uzbekistan trip in fall 2023.
February 4, 2025 at 2:58 AM
Been on Bluesky for a few weeks and neglected to upload a banner pic. Enjoy this #Soviet mosaic featuring the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, on the wall of School #110, Taras Shevchenko street, Tashkent, Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 taken during my #Kazakhstan – #Uzbekistan trip in fall 2023.
1/ Russian verbs are easy, just learn how to conjugate these ~60 verbs 🫠 #langsky This is my "model verb analysis" of Russian verbs from RU Wiktionary, limited to the 12k verbs in the Russian Nat'l Corpus 52k-word frequency ranking. Explanation follows 🧵
February 2, 2025 at 3:41 PM
1/ Russian verbs are easy, just learn how to conjugate these ~60 verbs 🫠 #langsky This is my "model verb analysis" of Russian verbs from RU Wiktionary, limited to the 12k verbs in the Russian Nat'l Corpus 52k-word frequency ranking. Explanation follows 🧵
Some of the sillier stuff I spotted at Daiso during my trip to Japan last year 😄
Next time I go back to the US to visit my folks maybe I’ll have them take me to Tampa so I can gift my mom the cigarette wind blocker thing 😂
Next time I go back to the US to visit my folks maybe I’ll have them take me to Tampa so I can gift my mom the cigarette wind blocker thing 😂
February 2, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Some of the sillier stuff I spotted at Daiso during my trip to Japan last year 😄
Next time I go back to the US to visit my folks maybe I’ll have them take me to Tampa so I can gift my mom the cigarette wind blocker thing 😂
Next time I go back to the US to visit my folks maybe I’ll have them take me to Tampa so I can gift my mom the cigarette wind blocker thing 😂
Sort of! Programming has always been a hobby for me.
The old dictionary (screenshot below; I scraped an OCR'd version w/lots of typos) has the best info about verb usage:
e.g., refuse/decline sth. -> refuse "from" + 属格
"ask sb.(1) about sth.(2)" ->
ask 属格(1) about 前置格(2) OR ask 対格(2) of 属格(1)
The old dictionary (screenshot below; I scraped an OCR'd version w/lots of typos) has the best info about verb usage:
e.g., refuse/decline sth. -> refuse "from" + 属格
"ask sb.(1) about sth.(2)" ->
ask 属格(1) about 前置格(2) OR ask 対格(2) of 属格(1)
February 1, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Sort of! Programming has always been a hobby for me.
The old dictionary (screenshot below; I scraped an OCR'd version w/lots of typos) has the best info about verb usage:
e.g., refuse/decline sth. -> refuse "from" + 属格
"ask sb.(1) about sth.(2)" ->
ask 属格(1) about 前置格(2) OR ask 対格(2) of 属格(1)
The old dictionary (screenshot below; I scraped an OCR'd version w/lots of typos) has the best info about verb usage:
e.g., refuse/decline sth. -> refuse "from" + 属格
"ask sb.(1) about sth.(2)" ->
ask 属格(1) about 前置格(2) OR ask 対格(2) of 属格(1)
The НКРЯ's introduction (dict.ruslang.ru/freq.pdf) to their frequency dictionary goes in-depth about how the stats in it. In addition to IPM, they also have supplementary metrics R and D, which I had ChatGPT summarize for me.
Great resource, just wish it was disambiguated for stress :/
Great resource, just wish it was disambiguated for stress :/
February 1, 2025 at 3:37 AM
The НКРЯ's introduction (dict.ruslang.ru/freq.pdf) to their frequency dictionary goes in-depth about how the stats in it. In addition to IPM, they also have supplementary metrics R and D, which I had ChatGPT summarize for me.
Great resource, just wish it was disambiguated for stress :/
Great resource, just wish it was disambiguated for stress :/