Four of the island’s top young linguists had to decipher a ninth century Nuskhuri alphabet at the 2013 International Linguistics Olympiad.
The secondary school students competed with teams from 30 other countries at the event, at Manchester University.
The team was made up of year 12 Queen Elizabeth II High School students Erin McNulty and Doona Lambden, and year 13 students Byron Slater, of St Ninian’s High School, and Charlotte Tyler, of Ramsey Grammar School.
Bob Teare, head of Manx language with the Department of Education and Children, said: ‘None of them won a medal, but it was a very strong showing considering that this was our first attempt.’
The team had four hours to decipher the alphabet and translate into English a list of the 100 most influential books ever written.
Mr Teare said that just three minutes into the challenge ‘an excited member of the US team that went on to win gold suddenly stood up and announced: “Oh! I can read this! It’s in ninth century Nuskhuri script!”.’
He said: ‘By the end of the contest the Manx team had deciphered large parts of the code, and worked out that it was a list of books and authors.
‘A mammoth task of code breaking, which earned a respectable result for the team, but unfortunately wasn’t enough for a medal.’
Next year’s Olympiad takes place in Beijing. Mr Teare has been invited to take a team to an intensive coaching programme at the University of Wrocław ahead of the event.
He said he would love to hear from any companies or individuals who would be willing to assist, and especially from any keen young linguist who would like to challenge for a place on the team.
The team thanked the Steam Packet for its support.