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Taiwan hosts its 1st International Linguistics Olympiad
Nearly 400 people competing at National Taiwan University
Kelvin Chen, Taiwan News (7/21/25)

I wonder whether any Language Log readers have heard of the International Linguistics Olympiad or may even have participated in one of the Olympiads that have been held in at least 23 different countries since its founding in 2003.  Because it has an interesting history and purpose, before telling about what is happening in Taiwan right now (July 21-26, 2025), I'll give a brief sketch of the origins and aims of the Olympiad:

The International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) is one of the International Science Olympiads for secondary school students. Its abbreviation IOL is deliberately chosen not to correspond to the name of the organization in any particular language, and member organizations are free to choose for themselves how to designate the competition in their own language. This olympiad furthers the fields of mathematical, theoretical, and descriptive linguistics.

Format

The setup differs from most of the other Science Olympiads, in that the olympiad contains both individual and team contests. The individual contest consists of 5 problems, covering the main fields of theoretical, mathematical and applied linguistics – phonetics, morphology, semantics, syntax, sociolinguistics, etc. – which must be solved in six hours.

The team contest has consisted of one extremely difficult and time-consuming problem since the 2nd IOL. Teams, which generally consist of four students, are given three to four hours to solve this problem.

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 some advantage if they are familiar with one or more of the language groups which are the subject of some of the assignments, problems are increasingly based on some of the world's lesser known languages. Fortunately, with more than 6,000 languages spoken world-wide (not including so-called dead languages) there are plenty to choose from. The committee has a policy of not using artificial^{[contradictory]} 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 Alfred Zhurinsky [ru] 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 by Uspensky (president), Igor Miloslavsky, Alexander Kibrik and Anna Polivanova [ru]. 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.

(WikIpedia)

Now, as to what's happening in Taipei this week:

The 22nd International Linguistics Olympiad got underway at National Taiwan University on Monday.

During the opening ceremony, Deputy Education Minister Chu Chun-chang (朱俊彰) pointed out that Taiwan is a place rich in linguistic diversity, with languages including Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, and 16 Indigenous languages, CNA reported. Multilingual education is promoted in schools, and the cultural values behind each language are respected, Chiu said.

He encouraged IOL participants to use their analytical and problem-solving skills to help create a better future for the world.

This is the first time Taiwan is hosting the IOL since its establishment in 2003. Contestants use logical reasoning and observations to analyze unfamiliar languages, uncover their structures, and understand their rules and cultural contexts. Nearly 400 people from 43 countries and regions are competing this year.

IOL Taiwan Organizing Chair Chiu Chen-hao (邱振豪) said IOL is a gathering of the world’s top linguistic talents. Chiu hoped that through this event, the world could witness Taiwan’s linguistic diversity and vitality, and that it would inspire young Taiwanese to see all the possibilities in linguistics.

Taiwan first participated in the IOL in 2016 and won gold in the team event in 2017.

Inasmuch as the IOL has had such an intriguing conceptual background, I would be interested in knowing what impact it has had on linguistics in the years following its foundation.  How many participants have gone on to become professional and academic linguists?  No matter what, it must have been an exciting experience for those who participated in it throughout the decades.

From the very first year (2003), when the IOL was held in Borovets, Bulgaria, the problem sets have been challenging:  .

Individual Contest

1. Transcendental Algebra
2. Arabic Arithmetic
3. Basque Dates
4. Adyghe
5. French

Team Contest

1. Tocharian
2. Subscripts
3. Verbs

Here's a list of the problems by year.

 

Selected reading

• "International Linguistics Olympiad" (5/27/11)
• "The International Linguistics Olympiad" (7/31/15)

[h.t. AntC]

July 21, 2025 @ 5:21 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Computational linguistics, Contests

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