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

[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::