UKLO 2014

The hour still to come

HintIs the half being measured from what has passed, or from what is ahead?

The whySome languages count towards the coming hour rather than past the previous one, so 'half six' means halfway to six and 'quarter six' means a quarter of the way there. In a time puzzle, do not translate 'past' and 'to' word by word: find two clock times in the data, work out which hour each expression is anchored to, and test the rule on a third.

It has no consonant clusters, and syllables end in a vowel or 'n'

HintSay it slowly — which sounds were impossible for a Japanese mouth to run together?

The whyA borrowed word is reshaped to fit the borrower's sound rules. Japanese builds syllables as (consonant +) vowel; the only things that can close one are the nasal 'n' and the first half of a doubled consonant. So 'cr' is split open and a final 'm' or 's' gains a vowel — but English 'pen' stays 'pen', because a final 'n' is already legal. Hawaiian, which allows no final consonant at all, gives 'Kalikimaka' for Christmas. In a loanword puzzle, list what the language never does and apply each ban in turn.

A consonant cluster

Hint'strengths' has one at each end.

The whyEnglish piles consonants up; many languages allow none, and a few allow only certain pairs. Loanwords reveal the limits: a cluster gets a vowel inserted between the consonants, or one consonant dropped, so a borrowed English word grows a syllable or loses a letter.

r

HintThe sound most like it — made in the same part of the mouth.

The whyWhen a language lacks a sound, it substitutes the nearest neighbour: l and r swap in Japanese, Korean and several Pacific languages; 'v' becomes 'b' where there is no 'v' (Spanish); 'th' becomes 't' or 's' (French, Japanese). Working out the substitutions from given loanwords lets you predict how a new English word would be borrowed.

A classifier

HintChinese and Japanese put one between a number and its noun; English 'a sheet of paper' is a faint echo.

The whyChinese 'three CL book' needs a measure word chosen by the noun's type; English echoes this in 'two cups of tea', 'three head of cattle'. In a classifier puzzle, group the nouns by which little word they take — people, animals, round things, flat things — and describe each group; then note where in the phrase the classifier sits.

A question particle

HintJapanese adds 'ka' to the end of a sentence to ask.

The whyEnglish asks by swapping word order ('Is he here?'); many languages keep the order and add a small word — Japanese 'ka', Polish 'czy' — and in some it lands right after the word being questioned. Spot the particle by comparing a statement with its question form; then use it wherever the English has a question mark.

Assimilation

HintWhich of the two sounds moved to suit its neighbour?

The whyIn running speech a sound often shifts to match its neighbour: 'n' before 'p' or 'b' becomes 'm', 'd' before 'g' becomes 'g'. That is assimilation. Sounds can also drop out ('hands' losing its 'd'). Transcriptions of fast speech look wrong until you allow for these changes — read them aloud at speed and the words appear.

IPA

HintThe letters you'd see beside a dictionary's pronunciation guide.

The whyThe International Phonetic Alphabet, from 1888, gives one symbol per sound: [ŋ] for the 'ng' of 'sing', [θ] for the 'th' of 'thin', [ʃ] for 'sh'. Puzzles use it to show how words are really said. Familiar symbols mostly mean what they look like; learn the few odd ones and read the rest aloud.

lips

HintSay 'p', 'b' and 'm' in a mirror and watch what moves.

The whyt, d and n use the tongue-tip behind the teeth; k, g and 'ng' use the back of the tongue. Sounds made in the same place are the ones that swap for each other in fast speech, which is why 'ten' turns into 'tem' before 'pounds'.

Elision

HintCompare the careful and the quick pronunciation — count the consonants in each.

The whyIn a run of consonants the middle one often goes: 'next day' → 'nex day', 'hands' → 'hans'. Together with assimilation, elision is why a fast-speech transcription looks nothing like the spelling. Read it aloud at speed: the missing sound is usually a 't' or 'd' squeezed between two other consonants.

nominalisation

HintA doing-word turned into a thing-word.

The whySome languages nominalise with one small affix and then treat the result like any noun, adding 'my', 'from' or 'at' to it — so 'my arriving' can mean 'that I arrived'. In a puzzle, a verb suddenly wearing noun endings has been nominalised; translate it back into a clause ('when…', 'that…').

last; prepositions; suffix

HintWhere the verb sits, what replaces 'from', and how 'my' is expressed.

The whyRead such sentences from the verb backwards, and peel each noun’s endings from right to left — case first, then possessive — because the outermost ending was added last.