Saturday, July 18, 2015

How well do you know the 18 languages of this year's IOL? Match sentence to language!


So, following up on yesterday's posts about the 18 languages of this years International Linguistics Olympiad: how well do you know them? Here is a phrase in all of the languages, can you guys match the pairs (without googling)? I've also snuck in one extra language, 2 bonus point if you can label it. The correct answer is found at the bottom, in tiny light-yellow print (copy-paste to elsewhere to read). Happy pairing, let us know how you did in the comments!
  1. One language is never enough
  2. Един език никога не е достатъчен   (Edin ezik nikoga ne e dostatãčen)
  3. 種語言永遠不夠 [一种语言永远不够] (yīzhǒng yǔyán yǒngyuǎn bùgòu)
  4. Jeden jazyk nikdy nestačí
  5. Eén taal is nooit genoeg
  6. Ühest keelest ei piisa kunagi
  7. Une seule langue n'est jamais suffisante
  8. 言語を一つは決して足りない (gengo o hitotsu wa kesshite tarinai)
  9. Ar vienu valodu nekad nepietiek
  10. Jeden język nigdy nie wystarcza
  11. O singură limbă nu ajunge niciodată
  12. Одного языка никогда не достаточно (Odnovo jazyka nikogda nedostatočno)
  13. En jezik ni nikoli dovolj
  14. Ett språk är aldrig nog
  15. Bir dil asla yeterli değildir
  16. Однієї мови ніколи не досить (Odnijeji movy nikoly ne dosyt')
  17. Un idioma nunca es suficiente
  18. Egy nyelv sosem elég
  19. Unu lingvo neniam sufiĉas



  • A Estonian (Finnic, Uralic)
  • B English (American & British version separate) (Germanic, Indo-European)
  • C Swedish (Germanic, Indo-European)
  • D Spanish (Romance, Indo-European)
  • E Hungarian (Hungarian, Uralic)
  • F French (Romance, Indo-European)
  • G Bulgarian (Slavic, Indo-European)
  • H Romanian (Romance, Indo-European)
  • I Russian (Slavic, Indo-European)
  • J Mandarin Chinese (Sinitic, Sino-Tibetan)
  • K Dutch (Germanic, Indo-European)
  • L Slovene (Slavic, Indo-European)
  • M Polish (Slavic, Indo-European)
  • N Turkish (Oghuz, Turkic)
  • O Japanese (Japonic)
  • P Czech (Slavic, Indo-European)
  • Q Latvian (Baltic, Indo-European)
  • R Ukrainian (Slavic, Indo-European)



  • Here's a map from AMCharts showing all the countries that are participating in this years contest.


    ******DON'T LOOK BELOW IF YOU'RE NOT DONE :)! ******

    Correct answers: 1B, 2G, 3J, 4P, 5K, 6A, 7F, 8O, 9Q, 10M, 11H, 12I, 13L, 14C, 15N, 16R, 17D, 18E and 19: Esperanto!