UKLO 2023

An infix

提示English only does it for fun: 'fan-flipping-tastic'.

为什么English barely has them, so they are easy to miss. In a puzzle, if two related words share a beginning and an ending but differ in the middle, the difference is probably an inserted piece, not a change to the root.

A causative

提示English does it with 'make', or with a change of verb: 'fall' becomes 'fell (a tree)'.

为什么A causative verb means 'make somebody do the plain verb': feed is 'make eat', show is 'make see'. Many languages build causatives with a regular piece, and a matching puzzle will pair plain verbs with their causatives — so once you find the piece, every 'make X' translation is just the plain verb plus that piece.

harmony

提示The ending has two spellings and the root chooses between them.

为什么Sounds inside a word like to agree. Vowels may copy the root's vowel class, and a consonant may pick up nasality (an m, n or ng quality) from a nasal elsewhere in the word. When an added piece keeps changing its spelling from word to word, look at the root's sounds: the piece is probably copying one of them.

VOS

提示Three capitals, one for each of doer, deed, done-to — in the order they arrive.

为什么A rare order, but a Foundation favourite because it flips English twice: the noun nearest the verb is the done-to, and the doer waits at the end of the sentence. Test it on a line where subject and object are different nouns — if the English subject keeps landing last in the puzzle column, you have it.

The object

提示Check the lines where the same person carries one thing, then two.

为什么English verbs agree with their subject and nothing else, so a verb that changes for the object looks like an error at first. Compare two lines with the same subject and different objects: if the ending moves, it is object agreement, and you will need the right ending in every translation you write.

Not future

提示List every English tense that appears opposite the marker-less form.

为什么Tense need not be an ending: English 'will' is a separate word, and so are the tense markers of many puzzle languages. A marker that appears only in the future lines says nothing about the rest — a bare verb may be present or past, and only the English column can tell you which.

The article

提示Look at the little word in front of the noun in the two lines.

为什么English nouns carry their own plural, so we rarely look at 'the' for number. Some languages do the opposite: the noun is fixed and the article comes in a singular and a plural form. When you translate into such a language, the article is the only place the number is visible, so choose it deliberately.

once

提示Cross off each word as you use it.

为什么That instruction is a gift: if two words remain and two answers are blank, the pairing is forced, and if a word you wanted has already been used, an earlier answer is wrong. Keep a running tally.

case

提示Latin has six of them; English pronouns still keep two.

为什么A case ending answers the question a preposition would: from where, of whom, towards what. In a puzzle, list every ending you meet against the English preposition it matches, and keep the list — the same ending will turn up on other nouns, and the answer usually needs it in exactly the right slot.

Their order

提示Compare where 'your' sits in two different long words.

为什么Languages that glue several pieces onto a root keep them in a fixed sequence — possessive before plural before case, say. Work the sequence out from a long word you can already translate, write it as a template, and fill the slots.

sixteen; two; curves

提示How many signs, how many sounds per sign, and what the carving tool could not manage.

为什么So a match need not be exact: the same rune served for p and b, and an English name may come out a letter or two 'wrong' and still be right. Read a runic word as a set of possible sounds, then pick the reading that makes a name you know.

The Germanic family

提示English 'water', German 'Wasser', Swedish 'vatten' — all one clan.

为什么The language of the Viking runestones belongs to it too, so an inscription from a thousand years ago still shares words with English. When a puzzle says its language is related to English, use the resemblance: a word that looks like an English family word probably is one. Then check it fits the sentence before you trust it.