Plan Language Paths Scheme

Language Learning Paths (English Base, 30 min/day)

Source of truth: this wiki page.

1. Time Scaling

Metric: FSI class hours to ILR S-3/R-3 for native English speakers. At 30 min/day: 182.5 h/year. Formula: years ≈ FSI hours ÷ 182.5 (lower bound; FSI also assumes several hours/day of extra self-study and high aptitude). Phase multiplier: tier hours ÷ 600.

Tier	FSI hours	Years to S-3 at 30 min/day	Phase multiplier	Languages
I	600–750	3.3–4.1	×1.0	Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Swedish, Norwegian, Catalan*, Esperanto*
II	750	4.1	×1.25	German
III	900	4.9	×1.5	Malay, Swahili
IV	1,100	6.0	×1.8	Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Russian, Polish, Greek, Hebrew, Finnish, Hungarian, Turkish, Serbian/Croatian, Thai, Vietnamese, Filipino, Nepali*, Tamil*, Telugu*, Kannada*, Malayalam*, Marathi*, Gujarati*, Punjabi*, Odia*, Assamese*, Irish*, Basque*, Yiddish*, Somali*, Hausa*, Quechua*
V	2,200	12.1	×3.7	Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean

* Not confirmed on the FSI list; tier inferred from typology. Confidence: Medium.

Usage: Base phase lengths (Tier I): Foundations 2 wk → Core 4 wk → Functional 6 wk → Expansion 3 mo → Sharpening ongoing. Multiply by tier multiplier.

Daily 30 min: 10 min spaced-repetition review → 10 min new material → 10 min listening/speaking.

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2. Paths

Common start for all: Sounds → script (if new) → greetings → survival phrases → numbers → pronouns

2.1 Indo-Aryan: Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi, Odia, Assamese, Nepali

Base: Aspirated + retroflex sounds → script → greetings → numbers → pronouns (formality levels) → "to be" → SOV → postpositions → present habitual → gender agreement → oblique case → past → ergative construction → compound verbs → conjunct verbs → subjunctive → relative–correlative clauses

Language	Script	Adjustments
Hindi	Devanagari	Numbers 1–100 irregular: learn as vocabulary
Urdu	Perso-Arabic (Nastaliq style, RTL)	Spoken grammar ≈ Hindi; add Perso-Arabic vocabulary
Marathi	Devanagari	3 genders; heavier case suffixes
Gujarati	Gujarati	3 genders
Bengali	Bengali	No grammatical gender (natural/lexical only, e.g. শিক্ষক/শিক্ষিকা): skip agreement step; no ergative; add classifiers
Assamese	Bengali-Assamese	No grammatical gender (natural/lexical only); ergative -e; classifiers
Odia	Odia	No grammatical gender (natural/lexical only); skip ergative
Punjabi	Gurmukhi (India) / Shahmukhi (Pakistan)	Add tones in sounds step
Nepali	Devanagari	Ergative le; multiple honorific levels

2.2 Dravidian: Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam

Base: Retroflex sounds → script → greetings → numbers → pronouns → SOV → suffix logic → cases → present/past/future → negative forms → verbal participles (chaining) → relative participles → conditionals → honorifics

Language	Adjustments
Tamil	Strong diglossia: spoken first, written later; sound ழ
Telugu	Script related to Kannada
Kannada	Script related to Telugu; moderate diglossia
Malayalam	Many conjunct forms; long compounds; sound ഴ

2.3 Classical Sanskrit (reading fluency)

Devanagari → pronunciation → a-stem nouns → 8 cases (incl. vocative) → present verbs (parasmaipada) → ātmanepada → sandhi → other noun stems → past tenses → participles → compounds → absolutives → Hitopadeśa → Bhagavad Gītā

2.4 Romance: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Catalan

Base: Sounds → greetings → numbers → articles + gender → "to be" verbs → present regular → present irregular → prepositions → object pronouns → reflexives → past (perfective vs. imperfective) → future/conditional → subjunctive → compound tenses

Language	Adjustments
Spanish	Choose Latin American (e.g. Mexican) or Spain; ser/estar early
Portuguese	Choose Brazilian or European; nasal vowels
Italian	Double consonants; essere/stare
French	Heavy pronunciation step (silent letters, liaison); single "to be"
Catalan	Weak pronouns (pronoms febles); faster after Spanish/French

2.5 Germanic: German, Swedish, Norwegian, Yiddish

Base: Sounds → greetings → numbers → articles + gender → V2 word order → present → modals → separable/particle verbs → perfect tense → subordinate clause order → passive

Language	Adjustments
German	4 cases after articles; adjective endings late
Swedish	Pitch accent; definite suffix; only genitive -s + pronoun case
Norwegian	Choose Bokmål; pitch accent; definite suffix; dialect listening late
Yiddish	Hebrew alphabet (RTL); Hebrew-origin words spelled without vowels

2.6 Slavic: Russian, Polish, Serbian/Croatian

Base: Sounds → script → greetings → numbers → gender → present → cases: nominative → accusative → prepositional/locative → genitive → dative → instrumental → past → aspect pairs → verbs of motion → numerals with cases → participles

Language	Adjustments
Russian	Cyrillic; stress shifts per word
Polish	Digraphs (sz, cz, rz); vocative
Serbian/Croatian	Serbian: Cyrillic + Latin, mostly ekavian; Croatian: Latin, ijekavian; vocative; pitch accent late

2.7 Modern Greek

Alphabet → stress marks → greetings → numbers → articles + 3 genders → present → 4 cases → aorist vs. imperfect → aspect → future → subjunctive (να) → passive

2.8 Agglutinative: Turkish, Finnish, Hungarian, Basque

Base: Sounds → vowel harmony (not Basque) → greetings → numbers → suffix logic → present → possessive suffixes → locative cases → past → conditional

Language	Adjustments
Turkish	SOV; evidential -miş
Finnish	~15 cases; consonant gradation; spoken vs. written gap
Hungarian	Definite vs. indefinite conjugation; ~18 cases
Basque	No vowel harmony; ergative; auxiliary verb system

2.9 Irish

Choose dialect (Connacht/Munster/Ulster) → broad/slender spelling → greetings → numbers → VSO → bí vs. is → initial mutations (lenition, eclipsis) → prepositional pronouns → past → genitive → verbal noun

2.10 Semitic

Arabic: Choose dialect (Egyptian/Levantine) for speaking + MSA for reading → emphatics, ʿayn → script (RTL, letter forms) → greetings → numbers → pronouns → nominal sentences → root-pattern system → present → gender agreement → iḍāfa → past → broken plurals → verb forms I–X → dual → number–noun agreement

Hebrew: Script with niqqud (RTL) → transition to unvoweled text → greetings → numbers → gender → present (participles) → binyanim → past → future → construct state → prepositions with suffixes

2.11 East Asian

Mandarin: Tones + pinyin → greetings → numbers → measure words → SVO → time–place order → 了/过 → 的 → characters (radicals first, gradual) → complements → 把/被

Cantonese: Jyutping + tones → greetings → numbers → classifiers → sentence-final particles → aspect markers → traditional + colloquial written characters

Japanese: Hiragana → katakana → greetings → numbers + counters → です/ます → particles (は/が/を/に/で) → verb groups → て-form → plain form → kanji (gradual) → conditionals → keigo

Korean: Hangul → sound-change rules → greetings → native + Sino-Korean numbers → particles → polite -요 → tenses → connectors → speech levels → honorifics

2.12 Southeast Asian

Vietnamese: Tones + diacritics (choose North/South) → greetings → numbers → kinship pronouns → classifiers → tense markers → question particles

Thai: Tones → script (consonant classes, tone rules, no word spaces) → polite particles (ครับ/ค่ะ) → greetings → numbers → classifiers → aspect markers → register

Filipino: Greetings → numbers (native + Spanish-derived) → ang/ng/sa markers → focus system → aspect affixes → Taglish code-switching

Malay: Choose Malaysian or Indonesian → greetings → numbers → time markers (sudah/akan) → affixes (ber-, me-, -kan, -i) → reduplication → register

2.13 African

Swahili: Sounds → greetings → numbers → noun classes (m-wa, ki-vi first) → verb slots (subject–tense–object–root) → tenses → negation → relatives → applicative/causative

Hausa: Tones + vowel length (unmarked in Boko script) → greetings → numbers → gender → person-aspect pronouns → plurals → verb grades

Somali: Sounds → greetings → numbers → gender → focus markers (baa/ayaa) + declarative waa → verb conjugation → tone (marks gender/case)

2.14 Quechua

Choose variety (Southern: Cusco or Ayacucho) → sounds (ejectives/aspirates if Cusco) → greetings → numbers → SOV → suffix logic → cases → evidentials (-mi/-si/-chá) → tenses → subordination suffixes

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2.15 Constructed: Esperanto

Alphabet (ĉ ĝ ĥ ĵ ŝ ŭ) → phonetic spelling + fixed penultimate stress → greetings → numbers → pronouns → word-class endings (-o noun, -a adjective, -e adverb, -i infinitive) → plural -j → accusative -n → tenses (-as/-is/-os) → correlatives table → affixes (mal-, -in-, -ej-, -ist-, -et-/-eg-) → conditional -us / volitive -u → participles (-ant-/-int-/-ont-, -at-/-it-/-ot-) → word building → native-community content (podcasts, Wikipedia)

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3. Assumptions

• Learner: adult native English speaker, no prior related language.
• "Fluency" = ILR Level 3; conversational ability arrives much earlier.
• FSI hours are classroom-only for high-aptitude learners; real self-study time is likely higher.
• Tier assignments marked * are inferred (Confidence: Medium).
• Grammar order is a scaffold; acquisition is driven by input, so the daily listening block starts on day 1.
• Obscurity cutoff is subjective (Confidence: Medium).

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