LINGUISTICS

The linguistics class focusses on languages but especially the languages that are part of the Indo-European languages family. The Indo-European family is divided into several branches or sub-families, the largest of which are the Indo-Iranian ( Hindi,..), Germanic ( English, German, Swedish,…), Romance (Italian, French, Spanish,..) and Balto-Slavic groups ( Latvian, Polish, Slovene,..).

Students learn about the history of those languages, their expansion, phonetics, syntax and morphology. They practice their knowledge of the language through linguistics puzzle, personal project and group project.

Phonetics: how does it sound?

Syntax: how do you make a sentence?

Morphology: how are the words formed?

This year, we will participate in AILO ( All Ireland Linguistics Olympiads) and the ADAPT problem solving workshops.

The All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad ( AILO) is a contest in which secondary school students develop their own strategies for solving problems in fascinating languages from around the globe. Students must use their ingenuity to solve puzzles such as deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics, decoding numerical spy codes, and interpreting ancient Mayan poetry. The short video here is an RTE report on the contest from a few years ago.

ADAPT provide problem solving workshops to help students prepare for the AILO competition. In these workshops sample puzzles are explained and worked through in detail. ADAPT offer free online workshops for schools through live zoom links between the AILO tutor and one school classroom.