in the International Linguistics Olympiad post for 28th July 2011. I've backdated it to avoid spoilers. If you want to try the puzzle, go there first.
Ancient Greek
Consider these phrases in Ancient Greek (in a Roman-based transcription) and their unordered English translations:
(A) ho tōn hyiōn dulos ____ (1) the donkey of the master
(B) hoi tōn dulōn cyrioi ____ (2) the brothers of the merchant
(C) hoi tu emporu adelphoi ____ (3) the merchants of the donkeys
(D) hoi tōn onōn emporoi ____ (4) the sons of the masters
(E) ho tu cyriu onos ____ (5) the slave of the sons
(F) ho tu oicu cyrios ____ (6) the masters of the slaves
(G) ho tōn adelphōn oicos ____ (7) the house of the brothers
(H) hoi tōn cyriōn hyioi ____ (8) the master of the house
1. Match the Ancient Greek phrase (A-H) with the corresponding English translation (1-8).
2. Translate into Ancient Greek:
a) the houses of the merchants
____________________________
b) the donkeys of the slave.
____________________________
Note: the letter ō stands for a long o.
- By Todor Tchervenkov
For the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad 2007
To start, it helps to list the structures of the translations, whether the nouns of the subject and owners are singular or plural.
(A) ho tōn hyiōn dulos ____ (1) the donkey of the master SS
(B) hoi tōn dulōn cyrioi ____ (2) the brothers of the merchant PS
(C) hoi tu emporu adelphoi ____ (3) the merchants of the donkeys PP
(D) hoi tōn onōn emporoi ____ (4) the sons of the masters PP
(E) ho tu cyriu onos ____ (5) the slave of the sons SP
(F) ho tu oicu cyrios ____ (6) the masters of the slaves PP
(G) ho tōn adelphōn oicos ____ (7) the house of the brothers SP
(H) hoi tōn cyriōn hyioi ____ (8) the master of the house SS
Looking the elements of the phrases, clearly the last two words are the nouns, and the first two are "the ... of the" with variable endings depending on the number of the nouns they attach to.
An immediate observation is that there are only three occurrences of "tu" and three translations with singular owners. Take these aside:
the donkey of the master SS
the brothers of the merchant PS
the master of the house SS
hoi tu emporu adelphoi
ho tu cyriu onos
ho tu oicu cyrios
One in each group has different structure, so we conclude that:
(C) hoi tu emporu adelphoi = (2) the brothers of the merchant
This also shows that the phrase "the B of the A" is structured as "the of-the-A B" in Ancient Greek.
(A) ho tōn hyiōn dulos ____ (1) the donkey of the master SS
(B) hoi tōn dulōn cyrioi ____
(D) hoi tōn onōn emporoi ____ (4) the sons of the masters PP
(E) ho tu cyriu onos ____ (5) the slave of the sons SP
(F) ho tu oicu cyrios ____ (6) the masters of the slaves PP
(G) ho tōn adelphōn oicos ____ (7) the house of the brothers SP
(H) hoi tōn cyriōn hyioi ____ (8) the master of the house SS
Now there's only one other "adelph-", so:
(C) hoi tu emporu adelphoi = (2) the brothers of the merchant SS
(G) ho tōn adelphōn oicos = (7) the house of the brothers SP
(A) ho tōn hyiōn dulos ____ (1) the donkey of the master SS
(B) hoi tōn dulōn cyrioi ____
(D) hoi tōn onōn emporoi ____ (4) the sons of the masters PP
(E) ho tu cyriu onos ____ (5) the slave of the sons SP
(F) ho tu oicu cyrios ____ (6) the masters of the slaves PP
(H) hoi tōn cyriōn hyioi ____ (8) the master of the house SS
Now there's only one other "oic-"
(C) hoi tu emporu adelphoi = (2) the brothers of the merchant SS
(G) ho tōn adelphōn oicos = (7) the house of the brothers SP
(F) ho tu oicu cyrios = (8) the master of the house SS
(A) ho tōn hyiōn dulos ____ (1) the donkey of the master SS
(B) hoi tōn dulōn cyrioi ____
(D) hoi tōn onōn emporoi ____ (4) the sons of the masters PP
(E) ho tu cyriu onos ____ (5) the slave of the sons SP
(H) hoi tōn cyriōn hyioi ____
Now there's only one "cyri-" in a position matching "masters"
(C) hoi tu emporu adelphoi = (2) the brothers of the merchant SS
(G) ho tōn adelphōn oicos = (7) the house of the brothers SP
(F) ho tu oicu cyrios = (8) the master of the house SS
(B) hoi tōn dulōn cyrioi = (6) the masters of the slaves PP
(A) ho tōn hyiōn dulos ____ (1) the donkey of the master SS
(D) hoi tōn onōn emporoi ____ (4) the sons of the masters PP
(E) ho tu cyriu onos ____ (5) the slave of the sons SP
(H) hoi tōn cyriōn hyioi ____
So "dul-" = word stem for "slave"
(C) hoi tu emporu adelphoi = (2) the brothers of the merchant SS
(G) ho tōn adelphōn oicos = (7) the house of the brothers SP
(F) ho tu oicu cyrios = (8) the master of the house SS
(B) hoi tōn dulōn cyrioi = (6) the masters of the slaves PP
( A) ho tōn hyiōn dulos = (5) the slave of the sons SP
(D) hoi tōn onōn emporoi ____ (4) the sons of the masters PP
(E) ho tu cyriu onos ____
(H) hoi tōn cyriōn hyioi ____
So "hyi-" matches "son"
(C) hoi tu emporu adelphoi = (2) the brothers of the merchant SS
(G) ho tōn adelphōn oicos = (7) the house of the brothers SP
(F) ho tu oicu cyrios = (8) the master of the house SS
(B) hoi tōn dulōn cyrioi = (6) the masters of the slaves PP
(A) ho tōn hyiōn dulos = (5) the slave of the sons SP
(H) hoi tōn cyriōn hyioi = (4) the sons of the masters PP
(D) hoi tōn onōn emporoi ____
(E) ho tu cyriu onos ____
And now we know enough to finish:
(C) hoi tu emporu adelphoi = (2) the brothers of the merchant
(G) ho tōn adelphōn oicos = (7) the house of the brothers
(F) ho tu oicu cyrios = (8) the master of the house
(B) hoi tōn dulōn cyrioi = (6) the masters of the slaves
(A) ho tōn hyiōn dulos = (5) the slave of the sons
(H) hoi tōn cyriōn hyioi = (4) the sons of the masters
(E) ho tu cyriu onos = (1) the donkey of the master
(D) hoi tōn onōn emporoi = (3) the merchants of the donkeys
We can see that the structure is:
"the B of the A" is written as "the of-the-A B" in Ancient Greek
"ho" = "the" (singular), and "hoi" = "the" (plural)
"tu" = "of the" (singular), "tōn" = "of the" (plural)
"-os" = singular noun, "-oi" = plural noun
"-u" = singular genitive ending, -"ōn" = plural genitive ending
So:
The houses of the merchants = "hoi tōn emporon oicoi"
The donkeys of the slave = "hoi tu dulu onoi"
In this problem, a bit of general knowledge can short-cut the process. Knowing that "Philadelphia" means "brotherly love", and that an emporium is a store or marketplace, immediately gives clues to "adelph-" and "empor-", and I can't pretend that this didn't somewhat steer the direction of my initial guesses. However, the majority of International Linguistics Olympiad puzzles don't have such back doors.
Thank you very much. This is an excellent post.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot. this is brilliant.
ReplyDelete(This also shows that the phrase "the B of the A" is structured as "the of-the-A B" in Ancient Greek.)
ReplyDeleteHow did you deduce whether A or B comes first?
As I said at the end, by slightly cheating - recognising a couple of the words from English ones based on them.
Delete