Open round | 15 points | 3.45% | Problem statement | Official solution | Tags: MorphologySemantics
Like a typical semantic matching problem, we are given a starting point: sìì jaŋgide᷆ = school. Looking at the data, we see 18 "sìì ɓʉʉ" as the only related word. Since "school" decomposed into two words is probably "study house", the other "house"-related word is M "roof". So "ɓʉʉ" has something to do with "top"; the only word that's equivalent to "top" is "head", so 5 "ɓʉʉ" = I "head".
17 "nim ɓʉʉ" also contains "top". There's no meaning that obviously means "top", but "nim" is a very common word—it appears in 7 words: 2 "ɓeè nim", 9 "cún nim", 11 "ɗɔ́ɔŋ nim", 16 "nim", 17 "nim ɓʉʉ", 20 "sìŋw nim", and 21 "yír nim". The only meaning that appears this often is "water": D "cup (for drinking water)", P "soup", Q "source of water", R "teardrop", and T "water" (two others are unclear). So 16 "nim" = T "water". Looking among these meanings, the only one connected to "top" is Q "source of water" (since water flows down from the top).
We have another occurrence of "ɓʉʉ" in 14 "nìì gírcí ɓʉʉ". The remaining meaning that connects to "head" is "hairdresser", so 14 "nìì gírcí ɓʉʉ" = H "hairdresser". "Hairdresser" can be decomposed into "shave + head + person", and "gírcí" appeared this single time, so it means "shave", while "nìì" must be "person".
"nìì" means "person", so the other two words containing "nìì", 13 "nìì cún" and 15 "nìì kwɛ́ɛŋ", must also be occupations, so they are C "carpenter" and J "hunter". So "cún" and "kwɛ́ɛŋ" mean "wood" and "hunt", in some order. Notice we have 9 "cún nim", which is either "water wood" or "water hunt". The latter doesn't make much sense, but the former corresponds directly to "Anthocleista vogelii" (tree growing in the rainforest), so 13 "nìì cún" = C "carpenter", 15 "nìì kwɛ́ɛŋ" = J "hunter", "cún" = "wood", "kwɛ́ɛŋ" = "hunt", and 9 "cún nim" = A "Anthocleista vogelii".
If "cún" = "wood", then 8 "cún fwɛ̀ɛ̀ŋ" must be the remaining tree-related word: S "tree bark", where "fwɛ̀ɛ̀ŋ" = "skin". It occurs again in 6 "cam fwɛ̀ɛ̀ŋ", which must be G "fingernail" (literally: finger shell / finger skin), so "cam" = "finger". So 7 "cam-ŋwiiŋ" = K "little finger", where "-ŋwiiŋ" = "little". So 4 "ɓòw-ŋwiiŋ" = L "puppy" (little dog), where "ɓòw" = "dog". So 3 "ɓòw" = E "dog".
Now we only have 8 words left, and "nim" still appears in 4 of them. 3 of them contain "ɗɔ́ɔŋ". The remaining meanings are: B "calabash", D "cup (for drinking water)", F "duck", N "sauce", O "sauce spoon", P "soup", R "teardrop", and U "wild bird". N "sauce" has two other related words: sauce spoon and soup, so it is 10 "ɗɔ́ɔŋ", and 11 "ɗɔ́ɔŋ nim" = P "soup" ("sauce water"), leaving 12 "hode᷆ ɗɔ́ɔŋ" = O "sauce spoon".
Now we need to pick 3 water-related words from the 5. My picks are: cup, duck ("water bird"), and teardrop ("eye water"). cup is related to calabash; duck is related to wild bird; teardrop isn't related to anything, so 21 "yír nim" = R "teardrop". 19 "sìŋw kwɛ́ɛŋ" contains "hunt", so it must be U "wild bird" (so "kwɛ́ɛŋ" is more like a general "wild" than "hunt"), where "sìŋw" = "bird", so 20 "sìŋw nim" = F "duck". Finally, 1 "ɓeè" = B "calabash", and 2 "ɓeè nim" = D "cup (for drinking water)".
For F2:
a. bush = "kwɛ́ɛŋ" per the answer (so revising one more time: hunter = "bush person", wild bird = "bush bird"), but I don't find that totally obvious. I personally would have written "little tree" = "cún-ŋwiiŋ".
b. hut = "sìì" as in "school" and "roof".
c. to read = "jaŋgide᷆" as in "school".
d. to shave = "gírcí" as in "hairdresser".