Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad

Sample Problems

This is a sample of the type problems which students will be asked to solve in the competition. Problems will include both linguistics and computational linguistics problems, requiring and developing a variety of skills from students. Extra practice problems can be found here

The solution for this problem is now available here

Australian Computational Olympiad Problem: Kannada

by Mirjam Fried

Kannada is one of the major languages of India, spoken by more than 25 million people primarily in the South of the country, near Bangalore. It is a very old language and it uses its own writing system. For the purpose of this puzzle, the Kannada letters are transcribed using the Roman alphabet. The letters L, D, T, and N represent a special pronunciation with the tongue curled upward.

Hint: There is no translation for “the” in Kannada:

mane 'house' manege 'to (the) house'

peeTe 'market' peeTege 'to (the) market'

tande 'dad' tandege 'to dad'

roTTi 'flat bread' roTTige 'to (the) flat bread'

chaTNi 'chutney (a relish)' chaTNige 'to (the) chutney'

hakki 'bird' hakkige 'to (the) bird'

taayi 'mother' taayige 'to mother'

jooLa 'corn' jooLakke 'to (the) corn'

pustaka 'book' pustakakke 'to (the) book'

simha 'lion' simhakke 'to (the) lion'

kalkatta 'Calcutta' kalkattakke 'to Calcutta'

manushya 'man' manushyanige 'to (the) man'

amma 'mom' ammanige 'to mom'

huDuga 'boy' huDuganige 'to (the) boy'

sneehita 'friend' sneehitanige 'to (the) friend'

(a) Which parts of the words in the second column correspond to the English word 'to'?

______________________________________________

(b) Now, here are some new words in Kannada:

hamsa 'swan'

akka 'older sister'

tangi 'younger sister'

How would you say: 'to (the) swan' _________________________

'to (the) older sister' _________________________

'to (the) younger sister' _________________________