Who is the Guru?

Next to the word users in the title above is an image ofa crowd of people. In the center of this crowd is the green-headedguru whose image you will find peppered throughout the Lingurusite. Who is this guru? What is he doing in this crowd of what mustbe users?

The Guru is the essential user of the Linguru Browser.Everyone is a potential guru. The knowledge codified in the Linguru dictionaries isthe contributions of past and present users. Not every user hascontributed to the dictionaries. Not every user will. But all ofthe information one can get out of the dictionaries is informationusers have put in.

Why join the Guru?

To join the Guru is to use the Linguru dictionaries. If you wishonly to browse, the Browser will quickly give you the informationyou need. You can open a book in an unfamiliar language and beginreading. The Browser will perform the tedious work of figuring outwhat word to look up and what the word means. For example, if youare reading Welsh and type aeth into the browser, it willsend you to the entry for mynd, "go." If you highlight the-odd at the end of dringodd and click the highlight,it will send you to the entry for the morpheme -odd. Ifyou type in dringodd, it will send you to the entry fordringo, "climb". On a separate pane it will tell you how itknew where to look in the dictionary. The browser can take thetedium out of learning a new language.

Many have found that the best way to learn anything is toattempt to teach it. Whenever you use the Linguru Browser while online, you have the opportunity to share with other users what youhave learned about the language on your own. The process offormulating your knowledge in words another can understand and willfind useful reveals to you what you know and cements it in yourmind.

Even if you are fluent in the language described in thedictionary, you may wish to use the Linguru Browser. If you are ateacher, you can ensure that all of your students have access toyour knowledge about the topics you are teaching when they need itand are interested. If your students have to read a text, you canensure that all of the vocabulary they need to understand the textis readily available. If you are a language researcher, you can usethe dictionary to learn what others believe is true of thelanguage. If you are simply a booster of the language, you canassist others in their effort to learn the language and therebypromote its use.

Member Services

SIGN UP to receive afree username, password, and optional personal web page. We willemail you your password, which will allow you to edit thedictionaries and your personal web page. After we have sent youyour password, your user name and whateverother personal information you allow -- possibly including a linkto a personal web page created by the sign-up form -- will be addedto the roster of users below.

Who has joined so far?

When you join Linguru, we will add your user name to the listbelow. You can optionally also publish your real name, emailaddress, and personal web page introducing yourself to the otherusers of the interactive dictionary. When you make changes in thedictionary, sign them with your user name.

At any time you can change theinformation displayed about you and edit your personal web page by signing in withthe free username and password which we emailed to you when youregistered.

Other resources for language students

Sites related to general language-learning skills

• Luigi's Language Advice

Resources on-line for learning Welsh

The best site we know for finding Welsh materials on the web isYGwybodiadur: a Welsh Informationary, maintained by HarryCampbell in Glasgow. Here is a digest of some of the informationyou can find there.

On-line or electronic dictionaries

• A Welsh Course, composed and maintained by MarkNodine.
• The letter a in the Geiriaduryr Academi
• Y Termiadur Ysgol

Software

• Canolfan Bedwyr: a project of the University ofWales to produce Welsh language education software. Cysill andCysgair are available from this site.
• Cysill: a spelling and grammar checker andthesaurus.
• Cysgair: an electronic dictionary Welsh-Englishdictionary capable of analysing non-citation forms of words.

E-mail lists and newsgroups

• WELSH-L: all messages are in Welsh (Cornish or Breton)or (conceivably) in English or French but about theselanguages.
• CYMRAEG-L: a list for learners of Welsh; manymessages are in English.
• WEL-L: like CYMRAEG-L. To sign up, send a message to listproc@hawaii.edu withsubscribe WEL-L first-name last-name inthe body of the message.
• Catchphrase: a weekly newsletter for learnersof Welsh.
• LOLFA: the mailing list form of the newsgroup wales.cymraeg. Tojoin, send a blank message to lolfa-subscribe@gwebost.cymraeg.org.

Welsh on the web

• BBCCymru'r Byd: the BBC's world news in Welsh!