Water, fire, earth, wood, metal ...

XVII International Olympiad in Linguistics

From July 29 to August 29, 2019 , the XVII International Olympiad in Linguistics was held in the South Korean city of Yonyin. The Olympiad was attended by 209 schoolchildren-53 teams from 35 countries, including from three newcomers-Columbia, Hong Kong and Uzbekistan. Eight high school students represented Russia at the Olympics, and from the award ceremony they left with 15 medals. For the first time in five years, both Russian teams immediately managed to win awards in the team round: the Strelka team received silver, and the “squirrel” - bronze.

In the individual championship, Russian participants have seven medals: silver medals went to Denis Korotchenko from St. Petersburg and Maxim Barganov from Moscow, and bronze-Ekaterina Kropanina from Chelyabinsk, Muscovite Tatyana Romanova and Petersburgers Ekaterina Kozlova, Stanislav Khizhnyakova and Christine Vashpanova. Yakov Razhint from Moscow received a commendable review.

In total, 60 medals were played in the individual round, including 10 gold. Their owners were schoolchildren from Canada, the USA, Japan, Bulgaria, China and Great Britain. The absolute winner of the Olympiad was Ken Jiang from Canada's English -speaking team (was also a French -speaking) with an almost one hundred percent result - 98.7 out of 100 points. In the team competition, schoolchildren from Slovenia were the best. Silver awards received teams from Russia and China, bronze - from Russia, Malaysia and Poland.

At the Linguistics Olympiad, students solve self -sufficient problems, that is, those for the solution of which no special knowledge is needed. For example, having analyzed words or phrases in a completely unfamiliar language, they should identify some rules of the grammar of this language, draw up a small dictionary and translate control sentences.

An individual tour lasts six hours, for this time, participants are offered five tasks. The most difficult at the Olympiad of this year was the task of the Middle Persian writing Book Pahlavi. Its author Andrei Nikulin in 2010 received a gold medal at the International Linguistics Olympiad, gaining 99 out of 100 points. And most of all, schoolchildren liked the task of color recognition and the etymology of the names of colors in the Yurok language, which speaks less than a hundred people in the north-west of California. The authors of this task - the Russian and British linguists Boris Iomdin and Samuel Ahmed - received a prize of “resolve sympathy”.

Boris Iomdin gets this prize for the third time. He is one of the founders of the International Olympiad in Linguistics, a member of the jury of all 17 past Olympiads, the author of 19 tasks. Samuel Amed from Great Britain is a three -time gold medalist of the International Olympiad, the author of the two tasks of the individual round of this year. His second task was devoted to the designation of the days of the week and the distribution of tones in the language of Noni (Camerun). By the way, one of the special prizes for the best solution to this problem went to the Russian woman Kristina Vashpanova.

In the remaining two tasks of an individual tour, schoolchildren had to understand the syntax of the Yongkom language (Papua - New Guinea) and in doubling of sounds and syllables in the West Tarandan language (Indonesia).

In the team round, participants are given only one voluminous task, which must be solved in three hours with a team of four. This year, the task was unusual: not so much for linguistics as for semiotics. Participants needed to understand the system of symbols used by judges at rhythmic gymnastics competitions.

Like any task with the linguistic Olympiad, this one was self -sufficient, that is, all the data for the solution was kept in the condition and one could not know what kind of sport this is rhythmic gymnastics. In case students still have any questions, a video with individual elements of gymnasts performances was attached to the text of the task. To view the video, all the teams were handed out computers with disconnected access to the Internet, and the observer was on duty in each room.

Schoolchildren treated the task with great enthusiasm. Some even tried in the process of decision to carry out jumping and rotation, and later the jury was also entertained while checking the work. The task was relatively simple, so that many teams advanced far in its decision; And satisfaction from the solved problem is already a joy in itself, even if it did not go out to get a medal.

Tasks for the International Olympiad in Linguistics are preparing a special assignment commission during the year. But to come up with and testing the package of tasks is only half the years, because then they must also be transferred to the languages ​​of the participants and make sure that all options are completely identical. This year, the assigned commission prepared options in 24 languages: English, Bengal, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Danish, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Latvian, German, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian version), Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Finnish, French, Czech, Swedish, Estonian and Japanese. The coordination of the actions of translators and the layout of tasks was engaged in the associate professor of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Ivan Derzhansky.

While the schoolchildren who were tired after the Tour sang in karaoke, listened to lectures on linguistics and went on a tour of Seoul, their work was checked by the International Jury under the leadership of the Korean graduate student of the Faculty of Liteering of the University of Noretwesternsk (USA) Taehuna Lee.

Work for each task is usually checked by a group of three or four people; For this, clear criteria are developed inside the group and each work is checked, independently by no less than two people. All members of the jury are a little polyglot and can read in different languages. If the language is completely unfamiliar or some doubts arise, they turn to other jury members for translation, because the jury has specialists in all the working languages ​​of the Olympiad. Then a group of verification for each of the tasks reviews and discusses all the work by which they had the slightest discrepancies.

The results of the Olympiad are summed up strictly anonymously: the jury members see a table with points of participants for all tasks, but do not see surnames. The intrigue is disclosed only after the medals are already distributed.

The Olympiad in South Korea is interesting, but at the same time, for a European, participation in it may not be easy. A large difference between time zones, temperature +35 and humidity; Unusual acute food, which must be eaten by metal sticks. Korea is a country of contrasts and surprises. Between glass skyscrapers with luminous signs, curved roofs of traditional Korean one -story houses are visible, singing from a Buddhist temple can be heard; A stream flows there, which is pleasant to walk barefoot. In tourist places there are a lot of walking in Hanboki - this is the name of the traditional Korean costume. People in Hanboki take pictures on smartphones and listen to music through wireless headphones.

In Korea you have to be prepared for everything. The fact that during breakfast you took for olives, it suddenly turns out to be cleaned by quail eggs, and such a familiar Eskimo on a stick is a warm fish souffle. The hot dogs here are sweet, and the “sounds of the jack of a hammer” on the street is actually nothing but cocked chatter. There is a wireless Internet everywhere and accept payment by card, but the student hostel is divided into male and female corps, and women entrance to the male hostel are strictly forbidden at any time of the day.

It’s not easy to get used to it, but the organizers of the Olympiad tried to introduce participants to Korean traditions in a few days. On the opening day, it was possible to attend master classes on Korean culture: calligraphy, board games, dancing in the style of Kay-Pop, playing traditional Korean instruments and Korean writing-Hangylyu. For the participants, an excursion was also organized to the National Hangil Museum in Seoul, where they learned about the history and important cultural significance of the Korean alphabet.

Hangyl (lit. “Korean Writing”) was developed in 1443 at the court of the Sedzhon of the Great - the fourth king of the Chospon dynasty. Prior to this, Chinese hieroglyphs were used to record the Korean language, so reading and writing were available only to men from the highest estate who received a good education. Hangyl gave a chance for understanding a chance and an illiterate population to learn how to read and write. At first, the new alphabet met resistance in the scientific circles of Korea. In the literature, it was almost not used until the beginning of the 20th century, and finally won its rights only in 1945, after Korea gained independence from Japan.

Korean writing is simple and systematic. It has only 24 letters - 10 vowels and 14 consonants. The remaining characters are formed by combining these letters. The alphabet developed in the 15th century has a rational basis: the form of letters to indicate the five main consonants illustrates the position of the speech organs when pronouncing these consonants. These five letters are also associated with five elements, in honor of which five tasks of the Olympiad were named this year: water, fire, earth, wood, metal.

All the letters of the Hangyl, denoting vowels, consist of a vertical or horizontal feature and small dashes. The point symbolizes the sky (or yang, masculine principle), the horizontal feature - the earth (or yin, the feminine), and the vertical - a person as the essence between heaven and earth, the merger of Yin and Yang. From the letters of the Hangyl, blocks are formed, approximately corresponding to syllables. In the block - from two to four letters, which are recorded either nearby, or one under the other, depending on how vowel is in this syllable, how it is oriented - vertically or horizontally.

The logo of the Olympiad in Yonin is the syllable 언 (the first syllable of the Korean word 언어 “language”) and at the same time similar to the abbreviation IOL - International Olympiad in Linguists (International Olympics in Linguistics).

The next, XVIII International Linguistics Olympiad will be held from July 20 to 24, 2020 in the Latvian city of Ventspils.

Ksenia Gilyarova,
Associate Professor of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian State Humanitarian University (RSUSU),
jury member of the International Olympiad in Linguistics

Photo by the author

Task No. 2 (20 points).
The phrases in the language of Yurok and their Russian translations in a confused order are given:

 1. Muencherh Rohkuen A. Brown Dog 2. Perkeryerh Holeehl “ Black Boton 3. Muencherh Nerhpery C. Black Bear 4. Seeerkteri Chʼeeeshah D. Muenchar` Piaup` E. Brown boot 6. Pekoyar_ Tepoo F. White dog 7. Luuehlson` nerhpery G. White ball 8. Muenchey cheekʼwar h. White minting bush 9. Maenterʼry ch Eveneshah I. Lergery cheerʼery j . Orange bear 11. ʼerwerhson <Slekwoh K. Red tree 12. Muenterʼry Puuek L. A grassy green shirt 13. Loʼugey Slekwoch M. Red hazel 14. Skytoy noʼoy N. Violet berry 15. ʼWerRgerchson` cheer o. Black shirt 16. Loʼugey noʼoy P. White Deer 17. Tegee_n nerhpery Q. Blue ball 18. Skoyon Rochkuen R. Yellow Berry

(a) Set the correct correspondences.

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(b) establish the correct correspondences:

 19. Muencherhl S. Canary 20. ʼWerʼerrgerch T. Coffee grain 21. Luuehl u. Blood 22. Lergerh V. Milk 23. Pekoyek W. Olha 24. Skyon X. Wild Iris 25. Tegee ven Y.

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(C) Translate into Russian:

 26. ʼErrwerh 27. Lerʼergerh Rohkuen 28. Perkeryerʼery chʼeeshah 29. Pyerrp`tʼry chʼeeeshah

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(D) Translate Yurok into the language:

 30. Violet deer 31. White boot 32. Yellow ball 33. Black tree

(!) Yurok's language belongs to the Alg family. It speaks 20-100 people in the north-west of California. Ch, HL, SH, Y, ʼ - consonant sounds. EE, ER, Err, Ue, Uue - vowels.

Orange dye is sometimes made from alder bark. Mansita is a small tree or shrub with a reddish-brown bark growing in the western part of North America. Wild Iris is a flower of light purple.

The authors are Boris Iomdin, Samuel Amed.

Word order: an (a = adjective, n = noun).

(A) 1G, 2M, 3D, 4A, 5H, 6K, 7N, 8I, 9F, 10C, 11L, 12P, 13O, 14E, 15J, 16B, 17R, 18Q

(b) 19V, 20W, 21X, 22T, 23U, 24Y, 25S

(c) 26. ʼerrwerh - grass
27. Lergerh Rohkuen - Black Ball
28. Perkeryeri ch_eeeshah - Red dog
29. Pyerrp`tʼry ch_eeeshah - reddish-brown dog

(D) 30. Violet deer - Luuehlson 'Puuek
31. White boot - muenchey no'oy
32. Yellow ball - Tegee'n Rohkuen
33. Black tree - Lo'OGAR 'TEPOO