UK team strikes gold at IOL 2017

The UK squad has returned with five medals from this year's International Linguistics Olympiad,winning three golds, two silvers and a trophy in the competition – the UK's best results yet, putting us ahead ofthe other competing countries, including the USA, Russia and China. This is an achievement for theUK to be proud of considering that our Olympiad didn’t start till 2010.

One of the UK teams also brought back to the UK a trophy awarded to the best team in the individual competition. The trophy, donated by the USA Olympiad, is new for 2017 and so UKLO is its first recipient. This new trophy features as its centrepiece the Rosetta Wearable Disk – an amazing archive of over 1000 languages. This tiny disk is a replica of one originally made for a space probe. All you need to read the data is a powerful microscope – or you can read it on the web page. It is currently in the UK, so we’re keen to share it.

UKLO is extremely proud of the achievements of all the IOL team members. This has been a great year for the national competition, and the results from Dublin mean we are excited to see how our students will fare next year. Meanwhile, any school which isn’t already registered is welcome to join and take part.

Background information

The International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) is held every year, and the 2017 event ran in Dublin. The IOL is one of twelve International Science Olympiads, where high-school students take part to tackle tough puzzles and problems. But unlike the subjects on which other Olympiads are based, Linguistics is often seen as a humanities subject most popular with girls, and is not taught in schools.

What does a typical linguistics problem look like? The question paper always contains a body of data from some language – usually one that most people have never heard of –and the challenge is to analyse the relevant parts of the language’s grammar so as to be able to translate in both directions.

This year, the UK Linguistics Olympiad (UKLO) was taken in about 150 schools and colleges by over 4,000 students whose ages ranged from 9 to 19. The problems for younger pupils are a great deal easier than those for the Advanced competition which selects (after more sifting) for the international event. The numbers are growing every year, and girls and boys enter in equal numbers. The contrast between these buoyant figures and the steadily declining numbers for languages at A-level suggests that a more analytical approach to language teaching might boost the uptake of languages.

At the international event, there are two main contests, a team contest (where groups of students tackle the problems together), and a gruelling six-hour individual contest. This year's IOL saw 180 students participating in 43 teams, from 27 countries , so for the UK squad to win three of the eight Gold medals (including the top medal) is a real coup, and especially so since we only won our first Gold four years ago.

EDITOR’S NOTES

-UKLO is organised and run by a committee of academic linguists and teachers. In early February the first round of the competition is held in schools at four levels: Breakthrough, Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced. The Advanced test is held under normal exam conditions and is marked centrally by volunteer markers; all the other levels are more relaxed and are marked by the teacher. The second round is a residential weekend for training and selecting the UK's national squad (usually two teams of four) to attend the International Linguistics Olympiad.

-Competitors represent a wide range of ages from 9 to 19, but must still be attending secondary school or sixth-form college. Girls and boys are represented roughly equally in the Olympiad.

-Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, the Olympiad is entirely free to both pupils and schools.

-Relevant websites:

  • The UKLO website:
  • The International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL):
  • This year’s IOL team and their medals:
  • UKLO’s IOL awards since 2010:
  • A list of sponsors:
  • The Rosetta Wearable Disk:

For more information on the UK Linguistics Olympiad, please contact the Chair of the Committee, Professor Richard Hudson –