What is NACLO?

NACLO is a contest in which high-school students solve linguistic puzzles. In solving these puzzles, students learn about the diversity and consistency of language, while exercising logic skills. No prior knowledge of linguistics or second languages is necessary. Professionals in linguistics, computational linguistics and language technologies use dozens of languages to create engaging problems that represent cutting edge issues in their fields. The competition has attracted top students to study and work in those same fields. It is truly an opportunity for young people to experience a taste of natural-language processing in the 21st century.

Announcements

August 12, 2019 The dates for the 2020 contest are January 23 (open round) and March 5, 2020 (invitational round).
August 12, 2019Excellent performance by the US and Canadian teams at the IOL in South Korea here.
August 11, 2019Registration for 2020 will start in September 2019.

Student registrations are not carried over from one year to the next. Site registrations (high school and university sites) are automatically copied from one year to the next.

April 5, 2019The official press release for the 2019 contest is here.
March 27, 2019The problem sets from the 2019 contest have been posted.
March 25, 2019The results from the Invitational Round have been released. A press release will follow.
February 21, 2019The list of qualifying participants has been released. You can access it here as a text file.
January 2, 2019The Canadian Anglophone team at the 2019 IOL will be selected by NACLO. Anglophones in Canada wishing to participate should register for NACLO on this website under the "Students" tab.
October 19, 2018The dates for the "Olympiade Linguistique Canadienne Francophone" have been announced. The first round of the OLCF will be held on February 1 2019, and the invitational round will occur on March 22 2019. You can find more information here. Note that the OLCF and the NACLO are different contests.
September 24, 2018A NACLO puzzle by Patrick Littell was featured in the Guardian! Take a look at the problem here!
September 4, 2018REGISTRATION FOR 2019 IS OPEN NOW.
August 7, 2018Press Release about the teams selected by NACLO who participated in the 2018 International Linguistics Olympiad in Prague.
July 8, 2018The NACLO 2019 Student Handbook
July 8, 2018The NACLO 2019 Coordinator Handbook
July 8, 2018The NACLO 2019 Appendix
July 5, 2018 The dates for the 2019 contest are January 24 (open round) and March 7, 2019 (invitational round).
June 16, 2018Press Release about the 2018 Invitational Round.
April 4, 2018The unofficial results from the Invitational Round are here.
March 27, 2018The booklets for both rounds are now online.
February 27, 2018The list of qualifying participants has been released. You can access it as a text file.
February 20, 2018The scores for R1 have been uploaded. If you have qualified, contact your site host to confirm the times and location for R2 on March 8.
January 27, 2018Registration for 2019 will start in September 2018.
October 1, 2017The NACLO 2018 Student Handbook
October 1, 2017The NACLO 2018 Coordinator Handbook
October 1, 2017The NACLO 2018 Appendix
September 21, 2017 REGISTRATION FOR 2018 IS OPEN NOW.
Student registrations are not carried over from one year to the next. Site registrations (high school and university sites) are automatically copied from one year to the next.
August 17, 2017 The dates for the 2018 contest IN THE USA are January 25 (open round) and March 8, 2018 (invitational round).
August 17, 2017 The dates for the 2018 contest IN CANADA (both anglophone and francophone) will be announced later. Check the OLC-CLO site.
August 17, 2017Press Release about the teams selected by NACLO who participated in the 2017 International Linguistics Olympiad in Dublin.
Friday, July 7, 2017Press Release about the teams selected by NACLO who are going to the 2017 International Linguistics Olympiad in Dublin.
Friday, April 11, 2017Press Release about the 2017 Invitational Round.
April 3, 2017The problems from the two rounds of the 2017 contest have been posted here.
April 2, 2017The unofficial results from the Invitational Round are here.
February 28, 2017The results from the Open Round have been posted. You can see your scores by logging in at the bottom of this page. The list of US students who qualified for the second round so far is listed here. A total of 171 students have qualified (including 156 from the USA and 15 from Canada).
Article about NACLO by Margarita Misirpashaeva

Please Donate

You can help support NACLO either by mailing a check or giving online. For more information on both, please see our donations page. We thank you for your support!