Friday, July 28, 2017

Next week is IOL 2017 in Dublin!

Céad míle fáilte!


180 contestants from 29* countries and territories speaking at least 21 languages will be competing in Dubling, Ireland, to determine who is the cleverest at solving linguistic puzzles! We wish them all the best, may the smartest students (who also remembers to include an explanation and not just correct answers) win!

To find the schedule, go here. To see what the problems are going to be like, go have a look at last years.

IOL memes
In related news, it has come to our attention that the IOL has been awarded some attention in the meme-universe, there's the Facebook-page "IOL Memes for Ergative-Absolutive Teens" with accompanying blog "Linguistics Olympiads News Network". This is very pleasing, I (Hedvig) am particularly pleased at the name of the FB-page since it shows a true in-depth knowledge of current meme trends. Well done, who ever this is!

While we're on the topic of well-run linguistics-meme sites that might appeal to our contestants, go check out "Etymology Memes for Reconstructed Phonemes" and "Kittens & Linguistic Diversity"!

I'd also like to draw attention to this particular IOL-meme for the benefit of this years contestants:
Remember, many of those who you will be interacting with this coming week will not have English as a first language. Show some kindness and intelligence by learning some basic phrases in their languages and don't be shy to try them out.

In order to help you out, here's some phrases in the languages of the IOL from the splendid site Omniglot (except for two, see if you can spot them):

  • Bangla - Welcome - স্বাগতম (shagotom)
  • Bulgarian - How are you? - Как сте? (Kak ste?) 
  • Chinese (Mandarin) - Long time no see - [好久不见] (hǎojǐu bújiàn)
  • Czech - This lady will pay for everything - Všechno zaplatí tato paní
  • Dutch - Have a nice meal - Eet Smakelijk!
  • Gaeilge - May the road rise to meet you - Go n-éirí an bóthar leat
  • Irish English - How are you/what's up? - What's the Craic?
  • Estonian - Good luck! - Edu!
  • French - Would you like to dance with me? - Voudriez-vous danser avec moi?
  • Hungarian - Where's the toilet? - Hol van a mosdó?
  • Japanese - I miss you - あなたがいなくて寂しいです (anata ga inakute sabishī desu)
  • Korean - Good luck - 행운을 빌어요 (haeng un eul bil eo yo)
  • Latvian - Reply to 'How are you?' - Paldies, labi. Un jums?
  • Polish - Speak to me in Polish - Ze mną można rozmawiać po polsku
  • Portuguese (Brazilian) - Hello - Tudo bem
  • Romanian - Why are you laughing? - De ce râdeți? 
  • Russian - My hovercraft is full of eels - Моё судно на воздушной подушке полно угрей
    (Moë sudno na vozdušnoj poduške polno ugrej)
  • Slovene - My name is... - Ime mi je...
  • Spanish - Please speak more slowly - Por favor hable más despacio
  • Swedish - All power to Tengil our liberator - All makt åt Tengil vår befriare
  • Turkish -  I don't understand - Anlamıyorum
  • Ukrainian - One language is never enough - Однієї мови ніколи не досить
    (Odnijeji movy nikoly ne dosyt')
Alright, have fun now!

*Armenia unfortunately had to pull out because of trouble with sudden retraction of funding. Sad to see their work gone to waste. We hope they can partake next year.