International Linguistics Olympiad

The setup differs from most other Science Olympiads in that the olympiad contains both individual and team contests. The individual contest consists of five problems covering the main fields of theoretical, mathematical and applied linguistics – phonetics, morphology, semantics, syntax, sociolinguistics, etc. – which must be solved in six hours. Since the second IOL, the team contest has consisted of one extremely difficult and time-consuming problem. Teams, which generally consist of four students, are given three to four hours to solve it. Like nearly all International Science Olympiads, its problems are translated and completed in several languages and as such must be written free of any native language constraints. However, unlike other olympiads, the translations are provided by the multilingual Problem Committee, a body of experts independent of the delegates' team leaders. Because competitors could gain an advantage if they are familiar with the language groups that are the subject of some of the assignments, problems are increasingly based on some of the world's lesser-known languages. Fortunately, with over 6,000 languages spoken worldwide (not including the so-called dead languages), there are plenty to choose from. The committee has a policy of not using artificial or fictional languages for its problems. The presence of an independent Problem Committee and Jury means that team leaders do not have to be experts in the field (though most are): they can (and often do) work closely with their teams, providing last-minute coaching throughout the week of the competition. In any case, the most helpful ability is analytic and deductive thinking, as all solutions must include clear reasoning and justification. ==History==

The concept of self-sufficient linguistics problems was formulated in the 1960s, in the intellectual environment of the recently founded Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (OTiPL) of the Moscow State University. Moscow linguists in this environment were specially interested in understanding and modelling the formal and mathematical aspects of the natural languages; they were hatching things like the meaning-text theory, the Moscow School of Comparative Linguistics and the beginnings of what later became computational linguistics. In 1963, Andrey Zaliznyak published a book called Linguistics problems (Лингвистические задачи), explaining in the introduction: ''Specially crafted problems can serve as an important tool for teaching the fundamental principles and methods of linguistics. In existing collections, the material used for problems is often drawn from the facts of students' native language or the most well-known European languages. While such tasks are undoubtedly beneficial, they often suffer from the disadvantage that it is challenging to separate the linguistic task itself (which requires nothing but understanding the basic linguistic principles) from testing specific knowledge of the language under consideration. The best (though not the only) way to get rid of that second element, which doesn't directly relate to general linguistics, is to create tasks based on material from languages unfamiliar to the students. Of course, it is more challenging to craft such problems, since all the essential specific facts necessary for solving the task must somehow be presented in the problem data. However, in this case, students only need an understanding of the properties of language in general.'' Following the publication, the then-student proposed to the mathematics professor Vladimir Uspensky the creation of a high-school olympiad using such problems. Thus, in 1965, the first edition of the Moscow's Traditional Olympiad on Linguistics and Mathematics was held, with an Organizing Committee composed of Uspensky (president), Igor Miloslavsky, Alexander Kibrik and . The Problem Committee consisted of Zhurinsky (the author of most of the problems) and Zaliznyak, plus Boris Gorodetsky (president), Alexandra Raskina and Victor Raskin. The Moscow Olympiad was held regularly until 1982 and resumed again in 1988, being still held nowadays. In the next decades, olympiads using the format of self-sufficient linguistics problems started to appear in different regions: • In 1984, professor Ruslan Mitkov founded the Bulgarian Olympiad of Mathematical Linguistics, open for high-school students of the whole Bulgaria. • In 1995, a group of professors from the Saint Petersburg State University started to organize the Traditional Olympiad of Linguistics and Mathematics of Saint Petersburg, following a format very similar to that of the Moscow Olympiad. Decades later, in the 2010s, the olympiads of Moscow and Saint Petersburg merged to form a Russian National Linguistics Olympiad. • In 2001, a group connected to the Leiden University, including Ruslan Mitkov, the founder of the Bulgarian Olympiad, and two other former participants of the Moscow Olympiad (Alexander Lubotsky participated from 1973 to 1976; Leonid Kulikov participated from 1981 to 1988), founded a Linguistics Olympiad for the Netherlands. After the foundation of the Bulgarian olympiad, teams of the Moscow Linguistic Olympiad's winners successfully competed in Bulgaria and vice versa, demonstrating good potential for international cooperation in the field. With the multiplication of initiatives, the organizers of the different olympiads decided to organize, in 2003, the First International Olympiad in Theoretical, Mathematical, and Applied Linguistics, with six participating countries: • Russia, with one team from the Moscow Olympiad and another from the Saint Petersburg Olympiad; • Bulgaria, also with two teams, both from the Bulgarian Olympiad; • Netherlands, with a team selected from its newly formed olympiad; • Estonia, with a team from the olympiad organized in the same year by Renate Pajusalu and other professors from Tartu University; • Latvia, with a team of students from Riga's Secondary School No. 40, the former school of Alexander Berdichevsky, then a master student at the OTiPL; • Czech Republic, with a guest team. == Contests, year by year ==

IOL 2003 The first edition of IOL then was realized from September 6 to 12, 2003, in the mountain resort Borovetz, Bulgaria, chaired by Alexander Kibrik from Moscow State University (MSU) and with the participation of six countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Netherlands, and Russia. The first International Jury was composed of four people: Ivan Derzhanski (president) (Institute for Mathematics and Informatics of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), Alexander Berdichevsky (MSU), Boris Iomdin (Russian Language Institute) and Elena Muravenko (Department for Russian Language, Russian State University for the Humanities). Chaired by Vladimir Alpatov, it gathered seven countries, with the first participation of Poland and Serbia and Montenegro. The Problem Committee was chaired by Elena Muravenko. In addition to Berdichevsky, Derzhanski, and Iomdin, it also included Ksenia Gilyarova and Maria Rubinstein, both from the Russian State University for the Humanities. The five problems at the individual contest were in Kayapo (Macro-Jê), Latin, English, Lakhota (Siouan) and Chuvash (Turkic). The team problem was in Armenian (Indo-European). IOL 2005 The 3rd IOL was held from August 8 to 12, 2005, at Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands. Organized by a Local Committee composed by Alexander Lubotsky, Michiel de Vaan, Alwin Kloekhorst, Jesca Zweijtzer and Saskia Tiethoff, it had the participation of 13 teams from 9 countries, Finland and Romania for their first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Ksenia Gilyarova. The five problems at the individual contest concerned syntax in Tzotzil (Mayan), semantics in Lango (Nilotic), numbers in Mansi (Uralic), possessives in Yoruba (Atlantic–Congo) and accents in Lithuanian (Baltic). The team problem was in Figuig (Berber). IOL 2006 The 4th IOL was held from August 1 to 6, 2006, at the University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia. Chaired by Renate Pajusalu, it received also 13 teams from 9 countries, with Lithuania sending a team for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Alexander Berdichevsky. The five problems at the individual contest were in Lakhota (Siouan) syntax, Catalan (Romanic) plural forms, Khmer (Austroasiatic) script, Udihe (Tungusic) possessives and Ngoni (Bantu) syntax. The team problem was in American Sign Language. IOL 2007 The 5th IOL was held from July 31 to August 4, 2007, at the Hotel Gelios, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Chaired by Stanislav Gurevich, it received 15 teams from 9 countries; Spain, Sweden and USA came for the first time. With the participation of USA, it was the first time that English language was one of the languages of the competition. The Problem Committee was chaired by Dmitry Gerasimov; with the participation of , it was the first time the Jury had a former IOL participant as a member. The five problems at the individual contest were in Braille, Movima (isolate), Georgian (Kartvelian), Ndom (Trans-New Guinea), and correspondences between Turkish and Tatar (both Turkic). The team problem was in Hawaiian (Polynesian) and focused on genealogical terms. In that year, it was decided that each country can send one or two teams, consisting of four students each, with the first team's costs fully covered by the host country. Also, the host country could send a third team. IOL 2008 The 6th IOL was held from August 4 to 9, 2008, at the Sunny Beach Resort, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria. Chaired by Iliana Raeva, it gathered 16 teams from 11 countries, including the first time for Germany, Slovenia and South Korea. The Problem Committee was chaired by Ivan Derzhanski. The five individual problems were in Micmac (Algonquian), Old Norse (North Germanic) poetry (specifically, drottkvætt), Drehu and Cemuhî correspondences (Oceanic), Copainalá Zoque (Mixe-Zoquean), and Inuktitut (Eskimo-Aleut). The team problem was about correspondences between Mandarin and Cantonese (Sinitic) using the fanqie system. IOL 2009 The 7th IOL was held from July 26 to 31, 2009, at the University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland. Chaired by Michał Śliwiński, it received 23 teams from 17 countries, with Australia, United Kingdom, India and Ireland sending teams for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Todor Tchervenkov (University of Lyon, France). The subject matter of the five individual problems covered: numerals in the Sulka language (Isolate), Maninka and Bamana (Mande) languages in the N'Ko and Latin scripts, traditional Burmese (Sino-Tibetan) names and their relation with dates of birth, stress position in Old Indic (Indo-Aryan) and the relation between grammar and morphology in classical Nahuatl (Uto-Aztecan). The team problem was in Vietnamese (Austroasiatic). This was the first year when the IOL received its Constitution. IOL 2010 The 8th IOL was held from July 19 to 24, 2010, at Östra Real Hostel, Stockholm, Sweden. Chaired by Hedvig Skigård, it received 26 teams from 18 countries, including first time for Norway and Singapore. The Problem Committee was chaired by (then recently graduated from MSU). The individual contest consisted of five problems covering: relations between various verb forms in Budukh (Northeast Caucasian), the Drehu (Oceanic) counting system, Blissymbolics, mRNA coding, and the connection between Sursilvan and Engadine dialects in Romansh (Western Romance). The team problem involved translating extracts from a monolingual Mongolian (Mongolic) dictionary. IOL 2011 The 9th IOL was held from July 25 to 30, 2011, at the Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA – for the first time outside of Europe. Chaired by Lori Levin, it received 27 teams from 19 countries, including Brazil, Canada, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Adam Hesterberg (then recently graduated from Princeton University). The problems of the individual contest required reasoning about Faroese (Germanic) orthography, Menominee (Algic) morphology, Vai (Mande) syntax, Nahuatl (Uto-Aztecan) semantics and the structure of the barcode language EAN-13. The team contest involved the rules and structure of Sanskrit (Indo-Aryan) poetry. In the program of the event, this was the first time when there was a Jeopardy-style informal competition, organized by the USA team leader Dragomir R. Radev. IOL 2012 The 10th IOL was held from July 29 to August 4, 2012, at the University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Chaired by Mirko Vaupotič, it received 34 teams from 26 countries, first time for China, Greece, Hungary, Israel and Japan. The Problem Committee was chaired by Ivan Derzhanski. The five problems at the individual contest were in Dyirbal (Pama-Nyungan) syntax, Umbu-Ungu (Trans-New Guinea) numbers, Basque (Isolate) pronouns, Teop (Austronesian) syntax, and Rotuman (Austronesian) semantics. The team problem involved recognizing country names in Lao language (Tai-Kadai). IOL 2013 The 11th IOL was held from July 22 to 26, 2013, at the Manchester Grammar School, Manchester, UK. Chaired by Neil Sheldon, it received 35 teams from 26 countries, including first time teams from Isle of Man, Taiwan and Turkey. The Problem Committee was chaired by Stanislav Gurevich. The five problems at the individual contest were about Yidiny (Pama-Nyungan) morphology, Tundra Yukaghir (Yukhagir) semantics, Pirahã (Mura) phonology, Muna (Austronesian) syntax, and telepathy based on English. The team problem involved translating Martin Seymour-Smith's list of the 100 most influential books from Georgian (Kartvelian) written in the 9th century Nuskhuri script. IOL 2014 The 12th IOL was held from July 21 to 25, 2014, at the Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China – for the first time on the Asian continent. Chaired by Jiang Yuqin, it received 39 teams from 28 countries, with Pakistan and Ukraine sending teams for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Tae Hun Lee. The five problems at the individual contest were about Benabena (Trans-New Guinea) morphology, Kiowa (Tanoan) morphophonology, Tangut (Tibeto-Burman) kinship, Engenni (Niger-Congo) syntax, and Gbaya (Niger-Congo). The team problem involved matching the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to their translations in Armenian (Indo-European). IOL 2015 The 13th IOL was held from July 20 to 24, 2015, at the American University in Bulgaria, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria. Chaired by Aleksandar Velinov, it received 43 teams from 29 countries, with Bangladesh, France and Kazakhstan sending teams for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Bozhidar Bozhanov. The five problems at the individual contest were about Nahuatl (Uto-Aztecan) and Arammba (South-Central Papuan) numbers, morphology in the Besleney dialect of Kabardian (Abkhaz-Adyghe), Soundex, Wambaya (West Barkly) syntax and the rules of Somali (Afroasiatic) poetry. The team problem involved using extracts from a monolingual Northern Sotho (Bantu) dictionary to build a grammar and lexicon of the language. This was the year when the current IOL official logo was chosen through the IOL Logo Competition. The winning design was done by Agata Łazarewicz of the Secondary Technical School of Electronics in Jelenia Góra, Poland. IOL 2016 The 14th IOL was held from July 25 to 29, 2016, at the Infosys Development Center in Mysore, India – for the second time on the Asian continent. Chaired by Dr. Monojit Choudhury and Dr. Girish Nath Jha, it received 44 teams from 31 countries, with Nepal and Sri Lanka sending teams for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Boris Iomdin. The five problems at the individual contest were about spatial deictics in Aralle-Tabulahan (Austronesian), Luwian hieroglyphic script (Indo-European), Kunuz Nubian (Eastern Sudanic) morphosyntax, Iatmül (Sepik) semantics and Jaqaru (Aymaran) morphology. The team problem involved matching over 100 utterances in Taa (Tuu) to their IPA transcriptions. IOL 2017 The 15th IOL was held from July 31 to August 4, 2017, at Dublin City University in Dublin, Ireland. Chaired by Vojtěch Diatka, it received 49 teams from 29 countries, with Malaysia and Denmark competing for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Maria Rubinstein. The five problems at the individual contest concerned Creek (Muskogean) stress, Hakhun (Sal) morphosyntax, Terêna (Arawakan) phonology, counting in Mountain Arapesh (Torricelli) and kinship in Akan (Atlantic-Congo). The team problem examined phonological correspondences among the three Jê languages Mẽbêngôkre, Xavante and Krĩkatí. IOL 2019 The 17th IOL was held from July 29 to August 2, 2019, at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Yongin, South Korea. Chaired by Minkyu Kim and Yoojung Chae, it received 53 teams from 35 countries, with Hong Kong, Uzbekistan and Colombia competing for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Tae Hun Lee. The five problems at the individual contest concerned Yonggom (Ok) morphosyntax, Yurok (Algic) colours, Middle Persian (Iranian) written in Book Pahlavi script, West Tarangan (Aru) reduplication and Nooni (Beboid) morphosyntax and day names. The team problem involved the symbol notation used by judges in rhythmic gymnastics. This edition, the third in Asia, marked an expansion in the participation of Asian countries. It was also the first edition of the Asia Pacific Linguistics Olympiad (APLO). At IOL, it was the year the IOL flag was introduced, and also the first year when there was a body of International Volunteers helping organize the event. Chaired by Rob Teare, it received 46 teams from 32 countries, with Moldova, Switzerland and Thailand competing for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Samuel K. Ahmed (University of Amsterdam). The five problems at the individual contest concerned Ubykh (Abkhaz-Adyghe) morphophonology, the semantics and morphophonology of Alabama (Muskogean) verbs, Nǀuuki (Tuu) syntax, Arabana (Pama-Nyungan) kinship, and phonological changes and tonogenesis in two daughter languages of Proto-Chamic, Phan Rang Cham and Tsat. The team problem presented extracts in 17th and 18th century Manchu (Tungusic) from Cheong-eo Nogeoldae and the Kangxi Emperor's Imperially Commissioned Mirror of the Manchu Language for analysis, with tasks involving matching sentences in Old and Modern Manchu to their respective translations as well as writing in the Manchu script. IOL 2023 The 20th IOL was held from July 24 to 28, 2023, in Bansko, Bulgaria, for the fourth time in this country. Chaired by Aleksandar Velinov, it received 51 teams from 37 countries, with Philippines competing for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Milena Veneva. The five problems at the individual contest concerned Guazacapán Xinka (a language of Guatemala with now no living native speakers), Apurinã (Arawak) morphosyntax, Coastal Marind (Papuan) morphosyntax, Plains Cree (Algonquian) verb morphology and the numbering system of Supyire spoken in Mali. The team problem presented extracts from Chester S. Street's dictionary of Murrin-patha, an Australian Aboriginal language spoken by over 2,000 people in the Northern Territory. IOL 2024 The 21st IOL was held from July 23 to 31, 2024, at the Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Brazil, which was the first time the contest was held in the southern hemisphere. Chaired by Bruno L'Astorina, it received 206 contestants in 52 teams from 38 countries, with Iran and Malta competing for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Andrey Nikulin (Universidade Federal de Goiás). The five problems at the individual contest concerned verbal forms in Koryak (Chukotko–Kamchatkan), noun phrases in Hadza (isolate), kinship terms in Kómnzo (Yam), semantics in Dâw (Naduhup), and male-female diglossia in Yanyuwa (Pama–Nyungan). The team problem involved lexicostatistics, Dolgopolsky's consonant classes, and the "StarlingNJ" algorithm to compute language family trees and stability indices based on lexicostatistical distance. This was the year when the IOL programme was extended from five to seven full days, after the successful addition of two "Friendship days" in Bansko 2023 (later editions had six to seven days of programme). This edition also included a simultaneous three-day capacitation program in linguistics for local Brazilian school teachers, as well as a special session for the participants involving editions in Wikidata, the Wikidata IOLab. Finally, this was the year when the "Students Oath" was formally introduced. IOL 2025 The 22nd IOL was held from July 20 to 27, 2025, at National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan. Chaired by Chenhao Chiu, it received 227 contestants in 57 teams from 43 countries and territories, with Greece and Macau sending teams for the first time. The Problem Committee was chaired by Tung-Le Pan. The five problems at the individual contest concerned number systems in Dzongkha (Sino-Tibetan), possessives in Gaahmg (Eastern Sudanic), verbal forms in Kuria (Great Lakes Bantu), semantics in Kewa (Trans-New Guinea) and psycholinguistic analysis in Kaqchikel (Mayan). The team problem involved comparing verbal forms in Camling and Bantawa, languages from the Kiranti branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, spoken in Nepal. IOL 2026 The 23nd IOL is expected to be held in Bucharest, Romania, in late July 2026. IOL 2027 The 24nd IOL is expected to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, in late July 2027. ==Summary==

The different editions of IOL can be summarized in the following table: • The competition was held remotely. ==Participant countries==

Like most International Science Olympiads, participation at IOL occurs as delegations from participating countries, usually selected as finalists in National Linguistics Olympiads. However, the concept of "country or territory" at IOL is not straightforwardly the usual concept. The Constitution of IOL writes: Under exceptional circumstances, two or more entities (“territories”) from the same country may apply to the International Board to be permitted to send separate teams to the IOL. As a guideline, the following are examples of the conditions under which such a request may be considered, but the final decision rests with the International Board: • The different territories are recognised as separate “countries” by other acknowledged bodies, including those for other competitions (e.g. educational or sporting). • The different territories have separate and independent governments or education systems, with independent Education Ministries, or potential funding bodies which treat the different territories separately. • The different territories have a historical linguistic divergence which makes participation under the “one language per team” rule difficult or impossible. Notably, Canada competes under two different territories: Canada Francophone and Canada Anglophone – the former having its own national olympiad in French while the latter participating in the English-based North American Computational Linguistics Open Competition (NACLO). The Isle of Man also participates as a different territory from UK and Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, as different territories from China team. The current list of accredited countries, i.e. countries that have national olympiads abiding some basic rules, consists of: Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada Anglophone, Canada Francophone, China, Colombia, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Macau, Malaysia, Malta, Moldova, Nepal, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia (under the name Belka), Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United States of America. Other than those, there are also countries that participated at IOL before, either with ad hoc teams or having organized a national olympiad no longer active, that are not currently accredited. These include Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Denmark, France, Lithuania, Norway, Pakistan, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Türkiye, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. == Individual medalists ==

Only countries with at least 1 gold medal are listed. The list is accurate up to 2025. The rank is based on the number of gold medals. ==Media coverage==

• Newspaper article in The Age "It may be semantics, but linguistics can be a team event". July 27, 2012. ==See also==