Czech Linguistic Olympiad - 19. 11. 2024

The Czech Linguistic Olympiad (CLO) is a nationwide professional competition for secondary school students who compete in one category. ČLO is co-organised by the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University with the support of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the Faculty of Arts of Palacký University. The CLO consists of school, regional and central rounds. The four most successful competitors qualify for the International Linguistics Olympiad.

Although the competition is focused on linguistics, neither knowledge of specific foreign languages nor linguistic terms and theories is required for successful participation. The CLO focuses on the general ability to analyse linguistic data, which does not require factual knowledge, but above all logical and creative thinking. The competition tasks use phenomena from different linguistic levels (morphology and syntax, phonetics and phonology, semantics or graphical systems) in natural languages, which the contestants are assumed to be unfamiliar with. The tasks thus combine the topics of languages and communication with mathematics and information and computer technology in an interesting and entertaining way. On the one hand, the contestants learn the basics of linguistic analysis and the scope of inter-language variation and diversity, while at the same time engaging logical thinking, algorithmic problem solving and analogy.

Text taken from the page: Czech Linguistic Olympiad