New Linguistic Olympics puzzles

[Tom Payne]

Dear Funknet

  You may like to know that there are now seven new
"puzzles" on the Linguistic Olympics website. These are the
following:

Samoan, Malay/Indonesian, Maasai, Swahili #2, Tamil, Yaqui,
and Classical Nahuatl.

This brings the total to 21 puzzles that are available on
the site. For the past six months the site has been
averaging about 250 "hits" per week. I answer between 5 and
10 messages a day from individuals who attempt to solve the
puzzles. Several Junior, middle and high school teachers
have let me know they are using the puzzles in their
classes. Others have inquired about possibly organizing a
"Linguistic Olympics" event at their school. So far I am not
aware of anyone who has actually done this though.

The main Linguistic Olympics webpage is
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~tpayne/lingolym/lingolym.htm.
There is also a report to the LSA on the 1998 Eugene
Linguistic Olympics at
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~tpayne/lingolym/LOreport.htm.
The event was held again in 1999, but with substantial
changes. If there is interest (and if I have time), I would
like to report on that event as well.

I encourage everyone to check out the site, and give me any
comments, suggestions, etc. These are puzzles geared to
American teenagers who have no knowledge of linguistics.

Tom Payne