This was a pretty interesting problem from the 2009 north american computational linguistics olympiad and I have to say, I was quite surprised this was labeled as a “hard” problem. Not what I expected from a hard problem as I thought this was somwhere along the lines of easy and medium. I probably thought so because I solved the problem with relativly low effort. Oh well, the linguistic gods let me have this one lmao.

Problem Statement:

The following Guaraní verb forms are listed along with their English translations.

japyhyta : We will be catching

nohyvykõiri : He is not enjoying

ombokapu : He is shooting

pemomaitei : You are greeting

ndokarumo’ãi : He will not be eating

ndapevo’oima : You were not taking

napekororõmo’ãi : You will not be crying

noñe’e͂ i : He is not talking

okororõ : He is crying

ndajajupirima : We were not waking up

ahyvykõima : I was enjoying

añe’e͂ ta : I will be talking

namomaiteiri : I am not greeting

japurahei : We are singing

*notes: kororo = crying maitei = greeting

karu = eating

mo ai = wll not ma = were not, was ta = will be

The answers that I got:

Guarni to English

1.)akaruma = I was eating

2.)ojupita = He will be waking up

3.)ndavo’omo’ai = He will not be taking

4.)napekororoi = You are not crying

5.)ndapyhyima = I wasn’t catching

English to Guarni

1.)You are not shooting = nepembokapui

2.)He is not singing = ndo-puraheiri

3.)We will be eating = jakaruta

4.)I will not be singing = ndapuraheimo’ai