Calling all Linguists Luke Sullivan

Luke Sullivan

With 2012 approaching, all eyes are on the Olympics – Olympic sport, that is. But across the UK, and internationally, a different type of Olympiad is taking place – one in which an agility with language takes precedence over prowess on a pitch.

The Linguistics Olympiad is a competition for secondary students, which involves solving linguistic data problems – including language meaning, form, structure, morphology, phonology and syntax – usually in languages far outside a student’s knowledge and understanding.

The Linguistics Olympiad was founded in the 1960s in Eastern Europe, where linguistics has always been popular. Since its inception and because of this, Eastern European students have traditionally been the most successful and it is only recently that English-speaking countries have been included. The UK Linguistics Olympiad is part of a consortium of English Language Computational Linguistics Olympiads, which developed out of the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (for Canada and the US) in 2009; two other English-speaking countries – Australia and Ireland – also take part.

After one competition as Great Britain (and using the Irish selection paper), the United Kingdom first entered the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) in 2010 sending two four-person teams to Sweden.

How does it work?

The first round of the United Kingdom Linguistics Olympiad (UKLO) is held at the individual schools that register. Any school can register any number of competitors, in one of two levels: foundation and advanced. This year 1200 pupils from years 7 to 13 took part in the first round, 850 of whom took the advanced paper – double the number who entered the previous year. Those who took the advanced level were eligible to qualify for the second round.

At my school, Dulwich College, we prepared for the first round in several of our general studies periods, looking at past questions and becoming familiar with what is expected. We completed the test – consisting of linguistic problems from a number of forms of communication, including one question about a form of Braille – in February, and the foundation papers were marked at the school, while advanced papers were sent to UKLO for marking. The candidates with the top 16 scores from around the country were selected for the second round in Edinburgh. Three of the 16 had got through to Round 2 last year, but the rest of us were newcomers. The top score was 59 out of a possible 65, and those who did well in the competition but were not chosen to compete for a place on the UK team, were given certificates of achievement.

The second round

The second round was organized by the UKLO committee and hosted by the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Edinburgh University. The event took place at a conference facility run by the University from Friday 25 March to Sunday 27 March. When we arrived in Edinburgh on the Friday, we were welcomed to the university by the three round two tutors: Graeme Trousdale, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language at Edinburgh University; Neil Sheldon, Senior Master at Manchester Grammar School; and Lynn Clark, research associate at Lancaster University. We were also given an introduction to linguistics and the two Olympiads (IOL and UKLO), learning about the fields of work open to those who study linguistics at university – the most interesting of which was fictional language creator, such as the language spoken in the movie Avatar that was created by Paul Frommer, who has a degree in linguistics.

After the introductions as a reward for our achievements the contestants were awarded two books about linguistics, including one written by Dick Hudson, who played a great part in organizing the second-round weekend, followed by a buffet dinner and some warm-up challenges to allow us the opportunity to get to know the other contestants. We spent most of Saturday practising for both the test on Sunday and for the IOL. Unlike UKLO the IOL consists of two papers, one to be done individually and the other to be done as a team. Practice for the individual test was undertaken with Neil Sheldon, and in small groups we attempted to tackle some of the questions from last year’s Olympiad in Sweden. We then pooled our thoughts and discussed the best way to tackle these problems. We practised for the team test in a similar fashion with Lynn Clark. In this session we focused on how to work as a team to tackle a problem; for example, we looked at different roles that members of the team can take on. After lunch we worked on strategies and techniques for answering questions with Graeme Trousdale.

The test itself was carried out on Sunday, and it included questions around subjects such as Warlpiri dialects and Irish numbers. A few weeks after the competition we learned that Piotr Galuszka, Jessica Hao, Jake Lishman and Nik Moore (see below) qualified for the UK team, which will travel to Pittsburgh, USA for the international competition between 25 and 29 July. Although I wasn’t chosen as one of the final four, it was a memorable and enlightening experience, and I enjoyed the opportunity to hone my linguistic skills and develop the tools required for better understanding the study of linguistics.

For more information on the Linguistics Olympiad, including details of past papers, visit www.uklo.org for the UK site, or www.ioling.org for the international site. To register your school for future linguistic Olympiads contact Neil Sheldon at n.a.sheldon@mgs.org

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  Ardavan Afshar, Winchester College Year 13
  
• 
  Rick Bartoldus, The American School in London, Year 13
  
• 
  Piotr Galuzka, Worth School, Year 13
  
• 
  Helen Hambling, Stephen Perse Foundation, Year 13
  
• 
  Jessica Hao, Westminster School, Year 12
  
• 
  Rory Heaton, Manchester Grammar School, Year 12
  
• 
  Olivia Lalude-Haworth, Queen EGS Blackburn, Year 12
  
• 
  Jake Lishman, All Saints R C School, York, Year 12
  
• 
  Lewis Lloyd, Dulwich College, Year 12
  
• 
  Sacha Mehta, Westminster School, Year 12
  
• 
  Nicholas Moore, John Leggott College, Scunthorpe, Year 13
  
• 
  Shreya Nanda, City of London School for Girls, Year 11
  
• 
  Julia Payne, Stephen Perse Foundation, Year 13
  
• 
  Younus Porteous, Westminster School, Year 13
  
• 
  Luke Sullivan, Dulwich College, Year 12
  
• 
  Sophy Tuck, Stephen Perse Foundation, Year 13