The Linguistics Olympiads

(maintained by Dick Hudson on behalf of the Education Committee of the LAGB)

last changed 20 August 2009

• Background
• Countries where national Olympiads have been organised:
  • Russia
  • Bulgaria
  • Estonia
  • The Netherlands
  • The United States
  • Australia
  • The Republic of Ireland
  • The United Kingdom
• The International Linguistics Olympiads
  • This year's olympiad - click here

Background

For some years, academic linguists in various countries have organised competitions ('olympiads') for high-school students in solving problems in linguistic analysis. For more information, see:

• A brief history.
• A Wikipedia entry.
• Rules and practicalities for one of the International Olympiads.
• A selection of problems from earlier events.
• A complete set of problems from earlier International Olympiads, together with some solutions and problems from some national olympiads. (Login as 'guest', password 'guest'.)

Russia

This is where the idea started in the 1960s. The olympiads take place in Moscow or St Petersburg.

Bulgaria

Local Olympiads have happened since 1984, and Bulgaria hosted the first International Olympid in 2003.

Estonia

Local Olympiads happen every year, and Estonia hosted the International Olympiad in 2004.

The Netherlands

Local Olympiads every year, and the International Olympiad in 2005.

The United States

• In 1988, Tom Payne (U of Oregon) organised the first of a series of olympiads within the USA, then there was a gap.
• 2007: NACLO (also sometimes called NAMCLO)(North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad) started to organise olympiads.

Australia

National olympiad from 2009, in collaboration with NACLO.

The Republic of Ireland

In 2009, the first All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad was held, using test materials prepared by NAMCLO.

The United Kingdom

In 2009 two UK schools took part as guests in the Irish competition, and the winning team represented the UK at the International Olympiad. This triggered the foundation of a permanent committee for the UK Linguistics Olympiad.

The International Linguistics Olympiads

For the rules and practicalities, as well as a selection of problems from previous events, see the announcements of the more recent Olympiads. Here's a message to linguists distributed in 2008 by one of the main organisers, Ivan Derzhanski (Bulgaria):

If you can compose such problems, or would like to take part in their
editing (as a test solver, solvability prover, estimator of difficulty and
detector of parasitic solutions), or are interested in training a team of
secondary school students for participation in forthcoming editions of the
IOL, we would love to hear from you. Write to me.

• 7. 2009: Poland
  • Administrative details
• 6. 2008: Bulgaria
  • Official website
  • Problems
• 5. 2007: St Petersburg
  • This was preceded by a summer school on linguistics for participants
  • A brief report
• 4. 2006: Estonia
• 3. 2005: The Netherlands
• 2. 2004: Moscow
• 1. 2003: Bulgaria
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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