neil sheldon manchester grammar school. apologia i am not a linguist (in either sense of the word) ...

Neil Sheldon Manchester Grammar School

Apologia

I am not a linguist (in either sense of the word)

But I do love languages and linguistics My academic specialisms – mathematics,

philosophy, statistics, computer science – all have links to, or applications in, linguistics

Got involved, by happy accident, in the 2009 contest

Member of UKLO committee, Round 2 tutor, team leader (a.k.a. chaperone) at the IOL for the last three years

Olympiads

Olympiads have been around for many years in subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry biology and informatics (computer programming)

Offering challenge and reward at a variety of levels

Clear links to curriculum subjects … … subjects in which school teachers feel

confident Hence the numbers – into the tens and

hundreds of thousands

Linguistics as an Olympiad

Relatively new: 2011 was the 3rd year for the UK and the 9th year for the international Olympiad

Doesn’t have such clear links to curriculum subjects. English, Classics and MFL might seem like natural links, but these subjects are generally taught with little or no linguistics content …

… partly because teachers lack specialist knowledge

… partly because of the nature of the curriculum Hence the numbers are still small … though they

are growing fast!

Linguistics as an Olympiad

But novelty can be a selling point A Mathematics Challenge paper can

seem much like any other exercise in mathematics, but a Linguistics paper is different and exciting

And while the numbers are still relatively small it is easier to make it onto the international team

The fascination of linguistics It is exciting to see how other languages

work; it helps you to understand how your own language works

Other languages embody other systems of thought and other cultural frameworks. Like travel, linguistics broadens the mind

Linguistics can “make the strange seem familiar and the familiar seem strange”

An approach widely advocated in art, poetry and philosophy

A good way of looking at many aspects of education, and certainly all the challenging parts of education

It’s fun!

Linguistics problem solving

Without the background knowledge of linguistics concepts, problem solving is very challenging – or feels like being thrown into the deep end

Many school children have been taught little or no formal grammar: they lack the metalanguage to tackle problems

So linguistics problems can be seen as a largely content-free test of intelligence

– which is appealing to the brightest– but out of step with contemporary educational practice

Organising linguistics competitions It’s not easy! (Try selling the idea to SMT) It requires an enthusiastic teacher … … one who is not afraid to be challenged It needs time:

– ideally, for preparation (in lessons or clubs)– definitely, for sitting the paper

And participation doesn’t do anything for a school’s league table position

But it’s not hard to motivate the students: the following slides have been used successfully with students as young as 9 and 10

Language PuzzlesManchester Grammar School Bexwyke Lecture

How many languages in the world? There are various estimates, but most experts

reckon there are between 6000 and 7000 languages spoken in the world today.

Lots of these languages are spoken by only a very small number of older speakers. When these speakers die, the language dies.

A language dies, on average, every two weeks. About 4500 languages are thought to be in

danger of dying out in the next 100 years.

Most spoken world languages

Language Native speakers Total speakers

850 million 1200 million, all varieties

400 million 500 million








115 million ???



Chinese 850 million 1200 million, all varieties









115 million ???




Spanish 400 million 500 million








115 million ???





English 350 million 1800 million







115 million ???






Hindi-Urdu 300 million 490 million






115 million ???







Arabic 280 million 450 million





115 million ???








Bengali 190 million 250 million




115 million ???









Portuguese 180 million 240 million



115 million ???










Russian 150 million 250 million


115 million ???











Japanese 125 million 130 million

115 million ???











Japanese 125 million 130 million

Punjabi 115 million ???

Identify the languages

one un uno uno um unus

two deux due dos dois duo

three trois tre tres três tres

four quatre quattro cuatro cuatro quattuor

five cinq cinque cinco cinco quinque

six six sei seis seis sex

seven sept sette siete sete septem

eight huit otto ocho oito octo

nine neuf nove nueve nove novem

ten dix diece diez dez decem

hundred cent cento cien cem centum


French













French Italian













French Italian Spanish













French Italian Spanish Portuguese













French Italian Spanish Portuguese

Latin













one ein een en en en

two zwei twee to to två

three drei drie tre tre tre

four vier vier fire fire fyra

five fünf vijf fem fem fem

six sechs zes seks seks sex

seven sieben zeven syv syv sju

eight acht acht otte åtte åtta

nine neun negen ni ni nio

ten zehn tien ti ti tio

hundred hundert honderd ethundrede

ett hundre

ett hundra


German












ett hundre

ett hundra


German Dutch












ett hundre

ett hundra


German Dutch Danish












ett hundre

ett hundra


German Dutch Danish Norwegian












ett hundre

ett hundra


German Dutch Danish Norwegian

Swedish












ett hundre

ett hundra

Identify the languages – harder

one un waaHid yī ichi один

two dau ithnaan èr ni два

three tri thalaatha sān san три

four pedwar arba’a sì shi четыре

five pump khamsa wǔ go пять

six chwech sitta lìu roku шесть

seven saith sab’a qī nana семь

eight wyth thamaaniya

bā hachi восемь

nine naw tis’a jǐu kyū девять

ten deg ’ashara shí jū десять

hundred cant mia yī-bǎi hyaku сто


Welsh














Welsh Arabic














Welsh Arabic Chinese














Welsh Arabic Chinese Japanese














Welsh Arabic Chinese Japanese

Russian













Pronouncing Russian

1 Один Adeen 2 два Dva 3 три Tree 4 четыре Cheteeree 5 пять Pyat 6 шесть Shest 7 семь Syem 8 восемь Vo-syem 9 девять Deh-vyat 10 десять Des-syat 100 сто Sto

A languages family tree

A puzzle for Indiana Jones

Football teams in Chinese

Manam Island, Papua New Guinea

The sentences below tell us where Onkau, Kulu, Mombwa, Tola, Sulung, Sala, Pita and Butokang live. Can you work out who lives in houses A to E?

Japanese hiragana

See if you can match the words to their pronunciations

Some made up words …

– Which adjectives seem ‘good’ and which seem ‘bad’?

Ancient Greek – but in Roman letters

The Greek phrases A-H have been translated into English, but the translations 1-8 have been jumbled up. Your task is to un-jumble them.

Manchester Grammar School Bexwyke Lecture

Language Puzzles

Neil Sheldon Manchester Grammar School

neil sheldon manchester grammar school. apologia i am not a linguist (in either sense of the word) ...

Documents

linguistics paper

linguistics content

linguistics problems

fascination of linguistics

mind linguistics

international team slide

curriculum subjects

school teachers