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The International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) is a contest for students up to secondary school level where they compete in solving problems based in the scientific study of languages - linguistics. The contest does not involve knowing lots of languages. Participants compete in teams representing their countries. They qualify by winning a national contest, organised by the national organisation. The IOL has certain criteria that need to be met in order for the national organisation to send a delegation, but does not run these individual national contests. Non-accredited delegations may participate as guests (at the discretion of the hosts), paying full expenses.
This is a document based on common questions and important information concerning the IOL, starting a new contest, applying, accreditation and more. We strongly advised anyone who's interested in this to also read our rules. Please read this page before writing to us. If you contact us asking for information that is found here, we will take longer time to get back to you - so please read this before contacting us.
My country doesn’t have a national contest, I’m a student and very keen. What can I do?
Unfortunately, while we welcome your enthusiasm you cannot participate without being part of a national contest or associated with a serious effort to start one. See the following two questions for more information. If you have any questions about languages or linguistics, you’re still welcome to write to us.
As a student, how can I participate?
You can only participate in the IOL by qualifying through your national contest. If your country does not already have a national contest you can attempt to start one or join in efforts to create one. Participants are not allowed to go to the IOL on their own without being associated with a serious initiative to start up a continuous contest in their country
How does it work, participating without an accredited contest?
Non-accredited delegations are allowed to participate as guests for a limited time, only if they represent a serious effort to start a contest. They are guests and as such are welcome at the discretion of the LOC and pay full costs. This is an opportunity that the IOL offers in order to encourage starting up contests. Countries can only make use of this opportunity two years consecutively and the participation in the IOL is only allowed if the LOC approves, and the International Board is persuaded that the organisation is bona fide and has a good prospect of becoming an accredited national organization. Â There is no guarantee that a non-accredited team will be allowed to participate. This has not yet happened, but the IOL grants the LOC the right to make this decision. The LOC of course needs to notify the countries and teams concerned as soon as possible. Non-accredited teams are liable for all their own expenses, including costs of accommodation, and participation in the social programme.
What does it cost to participate?
Each country's delegation pays for their own transportation cost to the venue, visa fees (where applicable), medical insurance and sundry expenses, and also extra accomodation etc costs for arriving early or staying on after the contest. There is also since 2010 a registration fee, which goes towards accommodation and board during the contest (5 nights for 1 team leader and 4 participants). This is paid to the LOC. Teams from accredited countries pay lower fees than those from non-accredited contest, who pay full costs. There will also be a higher fee if a country wishes to participate with more than one team. Please see the website for the current contest for more detailed information.
The IOL has several different bodies: the Board, the Local Organising Committee (LOC), the Problem Committee (PC), the Jury and the International Organising Committee (IOC). They have different compositions and responsibilities. Knowing about them will help you get answers to your questions quicker.
Every year the international contest is in a different country. The organisation and administration surround each year’s specific event is carried out by the Local Organising Committee (LOC). They set up the website for each year’s event, manage the registration and other year-specific details.
The IOL Board handles issues spanning over longer time, such as evaluating new contests, supporting the LOC and coordinating efforts.
During the IOL representatives from each country, the board and jury meet and together they form the International Organising Committee. The jury and representatives from accredited contests have a vote. This committee deals with overarching issues surrounding the running of the IOL and elects the board.
The Problem Committee creates the problem set and deals with the translation of the problems into the different languages. The Jury handles the grading of the solutions of the students during the contest.
If you have questions about the organisation of a specific IOL olympiad or registration, contact the LOC. If you have questions about starting up a new contest, ask the IOL Board. If you have questions about the problem set, ask the problem committee. Read the rules for more details on these different bodies.
How can I get in contact with the board of IOL?
Please use this contact form for questions concerning the IOL. Do make sure you’ve read through this page though, as the answer to your question may very well be here. You may contact the IOL in [PLEASE TRANSLATOR INSERT THE NAME OF THE LANGUAGE YOU*RE TRANSLATING INTO].
For questions regarding details on specific details concerning the IOL of this year, please contact the Local Organising Committee of this years IOL.
For questions concerning specific existing national olympiads, please contact them with the contact information on their websites.
How do I get in contact with the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of this years event?
On the ioling.org frontpage you will find a link to the website of this years IOL, as soon as it exists. On that website will be contact information for getting in touch with the LOC.
Who runs the national contest in my country?
In the menu to the left you can see a list of all countries that have participated in the IOL. You can find your country and links to their website.
What are the criteria a national contest has to fulfill in order to be an accredited contest?
The IOL is not in charge of national contests, but still makes certain demands on how these are constructed in order to be eligible for the IOL. The national accredited contest needs to:
be a contest that features problems about linguistics or a closely related field
have a working website that is not excluded from search engine results
be open to all students up to secondary level in the country (i.e not restricted to certain schools or programmes)
display clear information about registration and competing well in advance
have the problem set in the language of the majority of the population or the language of education
have details on how to contact the contest organizers
It says that we must be open to all students, but, the place where we are going to organise the national contest cannot hold all students of our country?
By stating that the contest is open to all students, it does not mean it necessarily needs to have the resources to let all students of the country physically compete. There can still be restrictions like number of seats - meaning that students need to register in time. Any rules which effectively restrict participation to students in a certain locality, or of a certain socioeconomic status (not to mention racial, religious, political or of course linguistic grounds) must be avoided. We understand that time and space are restricted, and it might be that not everyone can travel to the test site - but students cannot be excluded from registering. For example, it is alright that the contest cannot take place in all schools and that some might have to travel to the location. It is however not alright that certain students are not allowed to register, travel to the test sites and compete if they can find the means to do so. This is not in the spirit of the IOL and is not allowed.
How does a country get accredited?
Accreditation can be sought at any time by contacting the IOL board, but the deadline of January 1st must be met to guarantee participation in the next Olympiad.
What is the difference between registration and accreditation?
Accreditation is a process by which the board evaluates your contest according to our criteria: if they are met you may participate in the IOL at lower rates and until further notice. Registration has to do with the year-specific event, and is open to accredited and non-accredited delegations. Accreditation is handled by the board, registration by the Local Organising Committee. Different conditions apply for participating in the contest depending on whether you are accredited or not, and the LOC usually discusses such matters with the board once the registrations come in.
I am not satisfied with the contest in my country, what do I do?
If you believe that the contest in your country is breaking the rules of the IOL, most importantly by excluding students from participating or in other ways treating students unfairly, contact the IOL Board.
Can I participate in a country’s national contest if I’m not a resident/citizen there?
This is up to each national contest to decide, so please contact the contest you wish to participate in and discuss this issue with them. The norm however is that national contests should be open to anyone attending school in that country, regardless of their nationality, and that students living abroad participate in their local olympiad, not the one run by their country of citizenship. (In this respect, the IOL is NOT like sporting competitions). Exceptionally, ex-patriot nationals may be allowed to compete in the olympiad of their country of citizenship, but this is not encouraged.
How can I/we go about starting a national contest in my country?
In order to start a contest a national organising team of teachers, university staff and/or representatives from the appropriate government body (typically but not necessarily, Ministry of Education) will need to be formed. The organisation of the contest can differ in different countries. Technically the IOL does not require that the contest is sanctioned by the Ministry of Education - though this is commonly done anyway.
Running a national contest involves constructing problems, or collaborating with other countries on problems, finding the space and time for the students to do the test and scoring the tests fairly. The national contests that exist today do not all work in the same way and are not run by the international board. Some contests take place out in the schools themselves in the first round - this requires close collaboration with many teachers. Other contests takes place at universities or other centres, involving close collaboration with linguists and the individual students themselves and less focus on teachers. Some contests are conducted online with an automatic scoring tool.
Countries that share a common language sometimes collaborate on producing problem sets and run broadly similar competitions. However, this involves a huge amount of cooperation and coordination to ensure there is no leakage of problems before all the contests have taken place. Â There is spontaneous international collaboration in the form of people sharing old problems and translating, but this is only done when it can be assured that the original problem set is sufficiently impossible for the contestants to acquire. It is up to each national contest to ensure the security of the problem set, and that cheating is not occurring. Contact the larger mailing list for the IOL and/or countries with whom you share language to learn more.
As long as the contest meets the criteria to be accredited it can be organised in any manner.
Running a national contest usually involves working with secondary school teachers, academics at the universities, not-for-profit organizations which encourage students to take an interest in science and/or a government body such as the Ministry of Education. It is also necessary to seek funds in order to finance the national round as well as fees, flights and other expenses associated with participating in the IOL. If there are complications that result in the national contest not being able to cover the expenses to participate in the IOL and the participants themselves need to seek other funding, this should be notified and discussed with the IOL Board.
What languages are the national contests in?
The national contest needs to be in the language of the majority of the population or the language of education. Contests cannot be restricted to a particular language if this is not the majority language of the population or the language of education. The contest can also, in addition to the majority language/language of education, be held in any other languages that the organisers can comfortably arrange for, such as other widely spoken languages in the country (as long as the problems can be translated fairly). In general, there should be no requirement to speak a foreign language (eg English).
If a national contest is not providing the test in the majority language of the education system or the population, this is cause for concern. Please contact the IOL board if this is the case.
What languages can the participants compete in at the international level?
The participants may compete in the language of their national contest at the international level: that means both receiving the problem set in that language and handing in the solution in it. Participants may also in the individual round compete in another language that is represented in the IOL by another country, for example: one year an Estonian student took the individual competition in Russian. Competitors are not allowed to get the problems in more than one language.
The countries who wish to participate need to announce which language they prefer a minimum of ten weeks before the IOL (preferably long before that, especially for a new language). The problem committee consists of expert linguists from a wide variety of backgrounds, with an astonishing range of competence in many languages. No team is obliged or encouraged to work in a foreign language, and, given enough notice, you will almost certainly be allowed to compete at IOL in your own language.
The problem committee creates the problems and they are scored by the jury. The problem committee does not work with a base version of the problem in English and then translate. If you want to read more about multilingual editing of the IOL problems, we propose that you read this paper written by the chair of the problem committee.
Derzhanski, Ivan (2013) Multilingual Editing of Linguistic Problems, In Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Teaching NLP and CL August 2013 Sofia, Bulgaria Association for Computational Linguistics 27–34
http://ift.tt/1uRZrJr [in English]
What are the problems like?
The problems can be very varied. They are based on linguistics in some way, and linguistics is a quite broad field. They are always based on a genuine language. There are approximately 7,000 languages in the world: in order to not give an advantage to speakers of any particular language, often the problems are based on one or several of the not so well-known ones and an interesting phenomenon there. Why not have a look at some sample problems?
Do I need to know about linguistics in order to participate ?
No, not technically  - but it’s very useful. The problems are constructed in such a way that all that you need to solve the problem is found in the text given to you, you don’t need to know complicated linguistic jargon or terms. However, knowledge of how languages tend to work, and the ways in which they differ from each other, will help you know what to expect, and to explain your answers better. This is not a contest in logical thinking only, we will test your skills at thinking linguistically. We do not expect you to have formal training in linguistics since we know this is not provided at many secondary schools.
Do I need to know a lot of languages in order to participate? Do I need to know English?
No, you will need to know the language that your national contest is in. Problem sets at the international level are given in the language of your national contest.
Linguistics is not about learning as many languages as possible: besides, the problems are typically about unknown languages that you are unlikely to be able to read about prior to the contest. This is a contest about thinking like a language scientist, not about being a polyglot. That said, of course knowing more languages can be an advantage since it makes you aware of how they can work.
For social interaction with other participants of course knowledge of a lingua francas such as English, French, Russian, Spanish etc will most likely be useful, but this is not at all a requirement. Knowledge of English or any other language is not mandatory for participants. However, at least one team leader from each country needs to be proficient in English (or other lingua franca of the local organising committee and the jury) in order for communications surrounding the participation to work smoothly.
How old are the contestants?
There is no age limit as such. But the contestants must attend secondary school (“high school”) or lower grades in their respective countries, so they are typically between 15-19 years old. Younger students sometimes get through to the international final, and older students are eligible as long as they are still at school. Some countries have local versions of their national contest specially aimed at younger students, even down to primary-school age, and an exceptional student not yet at high school would be eligible, but it is not typically the case.
There is no restriction of the IOL on how young participants can be, only that they must attend secondary school or lower grades. It is unusual that students in grades lower than secondary school qualify, but they may partake in the IOL if they wish.
When was the first Linguistics Olympiad held?
The first linguistic olympiad for secondary school students was organised in 1965 in Moscow on the initiative of Alfred Zhurinsky (1938-1991), eventually a prominent philologist but then only a fifth-year student of linguistics, and under the guidance of the mathematician Vladimir Uspensky. The Olympiad, farsightedly called Traditional since its very beginning, was regularly held at the Moscow State University from 1965 until 1982. In 1988 the Olympiad was resumed at the Moscow State Institute for History and Archives (now the Russian State University for the Humanities), and since 1989 it has been organised jointly by the two institutions. Since 1996 a mirror of Moscow's Traditional Olympiad in Linguistics has been held in Russia's northern capital by St Petersburg State University.
Linguistic contests have also been held regularly in Bulgaria since 1982, being organised by the Union of Bulgarian Mathematicians and the Ministry of Education. In more recent years analogous events were launched in Oregon (US) and the Netherlands. At the same time teams of award-holders of the Moscow Olympiad in Linguistics competed successfully in Bulgaria and vice versa, which demonstrated the potential for international co-operation in this field. Thus was born the idea of the IOL.
When and how was the IOL founded?
The idea of an International Linguistics Olympiad was proposed in 2002 by Iliyana Raeva (Bulgaria) and first elaborated at a meeting also attended by Ivan Derzhanski and three members of the organising committee of the Moscow Linguistics Olympiad, namely Boris Iomdin, Elena Muravenko and Maria Rubinstein. There were more people involved, and the IOL built on traditions from the Russian and Bulgarian contests, not everyone who had an impact on the IOL is listed by name here.
Around that time, there were linguistic olympiads held in Russia, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and the US. The IOL borrowed many of its procedures from the Moscow contest (e.g., that
there are precisely five problems at the individual contest) and others from Bulgaria (e.g., that there is a team contest as well). Also from the Moscow and Bulgarian contests came the idea of guest participation, that not full members can partake at their own cost, which still exists in the IOL today.
The participating countries of the first contest in 2003 were: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, the Netherlands and Russia. For a full list of how many countries partook each year, please follow this link.
(Why was this not around when I was a kid?!)
Are you really sure it wasn’t? It might not have existed, it’s rather new in many places in the world. Why not make a currently young person happy by recommending this to them, or get involved in your own country’s national linguistic olympiad?
Why is the International Linguistics Olympiad abbreviated as IOL?
The abbreviated name of the Olympiad was expressly chosen so as not to represent its name in any particular language. Each language has its own name (in its own language) for the Olympiad, but none of them (so far) matches the initials IOL. In case you think this strange, it was modeled on the similar policy of the ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation). As you might expect from an organisation concerned with languages and linguistics, the IOL is firmly committed to equality of opportunity as regards use of participants’ own language.
Who creates the problem set for the IOL?
The Problem Committee, a group of scholars from all over the world with expertise in constructing problems. The members of the problem committee are listed here.
Who corrects the problems?
The Jury of the IOL typically consists of a subset of the Problem Commitee. The Local Organising Committee pays for the Jury’s expenses (including travel) during the contest.
How does the multilingual creation of problems work?
The problems are not drafted wholly in one language, so to help authors writing in different languages come up with something consistent, the problem writers use a number of templates (often recurring phrases based on previous problems) which guarantee the translation between languages.
If you want to read more about how this works, read this:
Derzhanski, Ivan (2013) Multilingual Editing of Linguistic Problems, In Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Teaching NLP and CL, Sofia, Bulgaria: Association for Computational Linguistics 27–34. Avaiable at  http://ift.tt/2r5r1r1. [in English]
Ivan Derzhanski is one of the founders of the international contest, a constant member of the problem committee and jury and co-chair of the board of the IOL. (He is also an impressive polyglot.)
How does the multilingual correcting work?
As well as receiving the problem set in their own language, the contestants also submit (in handwriting) their solutions in their own language. The jury is not divided into different subsections by language, but by problem. So a group of jury members grade all solutions for one problem, in all languages. There is of course collaboration within the jury so that people with more knowledge of certain languages help in correction of all problems in that language.
Isn’t there a slight risk that someone knows a language that occurs in the problem?
Yes, there is a risk that this might happen. The problem committee tries its best to avoid this, but of course they cannot correctly guess all the languages known by all participants. There are, however, more than 7,000 languages in the world and grammars for at least 2,500 of them. In other words there are lots of options to choose from!
This is not a test of knowing many languages, but it is worth knowing that knowing many languages will most likely improve your performance in this contest.
Isn’t there a slight chance that the different versions aren’t identical, giving some participants an advantage and others a disadvantage?
Yes, this possibility exists and the problem committee works hard at making the contest as fair as possible. Team leaders typically read the problem set critically after it has been given out and forward any complaints to the Jury. Complaints are however very rare.
What are the rules during the individual contest at the IOL?
During the individual contest you will be sat in a large room together with fellow participants. You will each have your own writing space and seat. Please bring pencils, sharpeners and erasers. You may use coloured pens if you wish, but don’t use red coloured pen as this is used by the jury later.
The problem set will be presented to you, and you are not to open it until the invigilators give permission. During the entire contest time you are to be quiet and not disturb your fellow participants. Eating and drinking are allowed, but under the condition that it is done as silently as possible. The local organisers usually provide some kind of sustenance during the contest. Please inquire at the event what this will be if you have any concerns.
The time for the individual contest varies with each year, as does the exact local circumstances, but it’s usually approximately 6 hours. During this time you are not allowed any contact with anyone else but invigilators and jury members. That means no contact with fellow participants, team leaders, people in the outside world, books or internet resources. You are to use your skills and the information in the problem set in front of you to construct your solutions. Mobile phones, smartphones, tablets, laptops etc are entirely forbidden. Needless to say, if you are found cheating you will be disqualified from the contest.
If you need to exit the contest locale for toilet visits, please indicate to the invigilator. You may also raise your hand to ask questions about the problem set. The invigilator or a jury member can answer these, but will not give you inappropriate information that gives you an advantage over others. For example, if you are worried about a typo or ambiguity in the problem set you are free to ask jury members - but if you ask more in-depth questions about the nature of the material they will probably not answer you.
The jury members have a lot of solutions to correct, so please write clearly and legibly. Use separate sheets for each problem: the jury is divided up into teams per problem and if you write the solutions to two different problems on the same sheet this causes difficulties. Extra paper will be available to you. You may write on both sides of the sheets. A piece of advice: don’t only hand in the “answer” but also hand in observations about what regularities, patterns and rules you have noted and that were helpful to you in answering the questions. This includes drafts. The jury will take this into consideration when grading your solutions.
The sheets with the problem set is your property, you do not need to hand it in. You are only allowed to see the problem set in one language during the individual contest, even if you understand more than one language.
Indicate clearly your name, seat number or code and number of the problem on each sheet you hand in. Also note down how many sheets you used per problem and the order of each sheet within that problem (i.e. write “2/4 if it is the second sheet of four for a particular problem). This is very important, make sure all this information is clearly indicated on every sheet you want graded.
What are the rules during the team contest at the IOL?
The same rules apply at the team contest as at the individual, with a few changes. Please read the rules for the individual contest thoroughly.
You are working in teams, which means that you are now allowed to talk to up to 3 more people. You may hand in as many sheets as you see fit for providing information on how you solved the problem, but only one solution per team is allowed. The problem set will exist in several languages, but you are only allowed one language during the team contest. So, if members of your team can understand several languages, you are still only allowed to see the problem set for the team contest in one of these languages.
You will be sat in a room with an invigilator, you may ask this person about toilet visits or questions about the problem set. The jury will be walking around answering questions, similarly to the individual contest. The invigilator can call their attention or the attention of local organisers if needed.
Same as with the individual, use separate sheets, indicate clearly your team name, number of sheets in the solutions and room number. Don’t use red pens and please write legibly!
