too bad I'm not still in high school---I coulda really gotten into that there

[fflo]

A sample problem from the folks at the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (solution at that site, though I haven't looked yet, cuz I haven't done the sample):

Quechua is a South American language family with about 8,000,000 speakers, most of whom inhabit the Andes mountains of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. Quechua was the official language of the Tawantinsuyu or Inca Empire before the Spanish invasion of 1532. For hundreds of years Cuzco, in what is now Peru, was the capital of the Inca empire. The sentences below represent the variety of Quechua currently spoken in Cuzco and in the area around Lake Titicaca.
The following are some sentences in Quechua, with their translations in random order. Indicate which translation goes with each Quechua sentence by placing the letter of the correct translation in the space provided:

1. Antukaq chakranpiqa t'ikashanmi papa. ____
2. Siskuq chakranpiqa wiñashanmi sara. ____
3. Siskuq chakranpiqa rurushansi kiwña. ____
4. Antukaq chakranpiqa t'ikashanchá kiwña. ____
5. Siskuq chakranpiqa wiñashansi sara. ____
6. Antukaq chakranpiqa wiñashanchá papa. ____

Translations in RANDOM order

A. Potatoes may be growing in Antuka's field.
B. Barley may be flowering in Antuka's field.
C. Corn is growing in Sisku's field.
D. I've heard corn is growing in Sisku's field.
E. I've heard barley is yielding fruit in Sisku's field.
F. Potatoes are flowering in Antuka's field.

Now, provide English translations for the following Quechua sentences:
7. Istuchaq chakranpiqa t'ikashansi sara.
8. Sawinaq chakranpiqa wiñashanchá kiwña.
9. Tumasaq chakranpiqa rurushanmi papa.
10. Kusiq chakranpiqa t'ikashanchá papa.
11. Inashuq chakranpiqa rurushansi kiwña.

Comments

[wednes.livejournal.com]

*waves*

Hey, I was sorry to see the remove.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Heya, Wednes. You'll have to forgive me--- I couldn't take the wedding prep talk, particularly as pertains to the getting into the dress thing. Maybe you understand? I mean, it sounds as if you can barely take it yourself.

I was sorta hoping you wouldn't notice, and I'd re-up for you on my regular read page after the nuptuals. :+}

[wednes.livejournal.com]

I suspect that you aren't alone in this. And I did retract that dress post since it came off sounding like I hate myself...and I really don't.

Actually, I'm going to make a wedding filter and only blab about it to interested parties.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

That's cool, W. I don't mean to be a shmuck. And I'm really glad that thinking was fleeting. If it weren't for my own internal fatphobe, I'd not be so sensitive to seeing it popping up in others --- more sensitive sometimes than others. Oddly, it's when I'm doing best for a good string of days at not being felled by that miserable body-/self-hatred that I am most loath to be reminded of it.

As for the wedding thing, that's just a thing that can rub me the wrong way, again some days more than others, and it's certainly not anything personal about your own way of expressing yourself around that subject or anything. I'm sure most of the population would think my overarching perspective on that stuff pretty g-d obnoxious, so I try to keep it under wraps most of the time. It ain't just sour grapes as a queer, either--- though I admit I get kind of a kick out of Hollywood couples saying they're not getting married until everyone can---and not just on the level of "who cares whether they're married"--- I actually do appreciate it politically. But my mild allergy to wedding talk is much broader than that, and, again, a little obnoxious-and-I-know-it. I mean, I really would love for queerness, or anything, to be dangerous (or, better, fatal) to the institution of marriage. But, still, if it weren't for the fear of running unexpectedly into more fatbashing, I'd not have dropped your entries from my page for the time being cuzza wedding talk. You know, within reason. If you went on every 20 minutes for a few paragraphs about it, maybe I woulda shuffled it to my "check with intention" list of lj users I read in hunks, vs. in the feed.

Maybe I should say, too, that I do enjoy the feeling that comes across in your wedding talk of your being excited about something, having something to look fwd to & work on, focussing on the future, etc. It feels good to have a sense of your having in your life these days that aspect of forward thinking and functioning and hoping. That is, I'm happy for you about it, too, if that makes any sense at all!

[wednes.livejournal.com]

That all totally makes sense. I was worried that I was already turning into an obnoxious Bridezilla and alienating people and soforth. So I appreciate your explanation (maybe that's the wrong word, but you know). Obviously, you should do whatever makes you happiest.

I do intend to invite you to the wedding, FYI.

[paperkingdoms]

I didn't do too badly for playing in notepad instead of with paper and pencil. [Swapped two in the first part, and got two verbs wrong in the second part.] Fun!

[fflo.livejournal.com]

I just got around to doing it, and I got it (working in TextEdit)--- but it took me over half an hour! I was almost tripped up but double-checked my logic after hearing of your glitches, and that fixed it (but did slow me down).

It WAS fun! Part of my brain I don't use so much now.

I was just playing this card game called SET last night with bigfinedaddy--- do you know it? There's an online version at the game's website. Talk about a simple concept that kicks the butt of my gray matter. That's seriously some synaptic action that, rusty, needs oiling up to get going for me any more.

Anyway, glad you liked the linguistics logic puzzle. I wondered whether you might bite. You were Most Likely To Give It A Shot in my mind when I posted.

[paperkingdoms]

I have - set's a favorite of mine.

::curtsies::

[fflo.livejournal.com]

::tips hat::