Using a Pareto approach with an LLM to learn Devanagari!
This article is basically an experiment in how linguists or polyglots or language enthusiasts (whatever we want to call ourselves, what does language matter 😉 ) can use LLMs, in this case Gemini on a PRO sub – you can try your own favorite one with the same prompts and see if it comes up with the same sort of thing) to learn something which is perhaps not altogether straightforward, but nevertheless very useful. In this case the writing system used, after Latin, Chinese characters and Arabic-based writing, by most people on the planet. The premise here is not to learn either Hindi or Sanskrit or any of the other languages that use Devanagari as languages. This is an exercise purely in getting to grips with a writing system. For this reason, we are looking at how this writing system transcribes international words, such as geographical or personal names, but not looking at any Hindi or Nepali per se, not every phrasebook phrases. Apart from anything else, the article should be as agnostic as possible with regard to which language form the set is of most interst to readers, whilst being aware that statistically Hindi will account for the greater part.
The prompts (that is, my bits) are in the H4 format, which for those unfamiliar with doing WordPress means the fourth header level format, which is what I am writing in now. What Gemini answers is in the other formats.
So hopefully you find this interesting on two levels: firstly the experiemnt as to whether right now, in July 2026, I can simply dispense with an expensive book and ask Gemini to write me an instruction book on a topic like this as we go along, allowing me to dictate the order of play, the style and other matters, and the second point of interest is the content itself, that is, the actual learning of what in this article is actually only 20 of what it takes to know Devanagari inside out, but it’s been guided to follow a Pareto approach. The test at the close proves that Pareto has not entirely held true, because we have a 67:20 relation rather than a 80:20 as Wilf Pareto might have predicted based on his principle, but anyway I think it’s a good deal to give my readers 67% of a very useful skill while asking them to invest only one hour to gain it.
Obviously it will take a few iterations to get it well memorised, but each run at it is likely to be doable within an hour.
Here goes.
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