The Spanish team — whose travel, registration and accommodation costs are funded by Divina Seguros — is composed of baccalaureate students Dídac Martínez Fraga (Colegio Nuestra Señora de Loreto FESD, Valencia), Elisa Asensi Gracia (Colegio Santo Tomás de Villanueva, Valencia), Ángela Tejero Alcalde (IES Tiempos Modernos, Zaragoza) and Sara Juste García (IES Torres de los Espejos, Utebo, Zaragoza). They will be accompanied by María Rosa Álvarez Sellers, dean of the Faculty of Philology, Translation and Communication at the Universitat de València.

These students were the most outstanding performers in the local and state-wide rounds, solving highly complex and varied linguistics problems. "They had to translate sentences in Afrikaans, work out how numbers are formed in Nuu-chah-nulth (an indigenous language of Canada) and interpret historical writing systems such as Mongolian ‘Phags-pa. Each exercise was an invitation to explore languages, cultures and ways of thinking that many students would probably never have encountered otherwise", explains Violeta Martínez-Paricio, lecturer in General Linguistics at the Department of Language Theory and Communication Sciences at the UV.

Salvador Pons, professor of Spanish Language at the UV, Stanislav Gurevich, a member of the steering committee of the International Linguistics Olympiad, and Violeta Martínez-Paricio have been organising the local round of the Linguistics Olympiad at the UV since 2022, which awards 1,000 euros towards tuition fees for the winning students, provided they enrol at the Universitat de València.

In addition, this academic year the three of them organised the 1st Spanish Linguistics Olympiad (OLE). This event, whose aims are to promote the richness and diversity of the world’s languages and cultures and to reward effort and academic excellence, was held on 18 April at the Faculty of Philology, Translation and Communication at the UV. Next year, students from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the Universidad de Salamanca, the Universidad de Valladolid and the Universidad de Sevilla will also take part.

"As organisers of the Spanish Linguistics Olympiad, we are delighted to have seen this initiative spark an interest in linguistics among young people. Although baccalaureate students in Spain have some knowledge of the Spanish language or the co-official languages, they are generally unfamiliar with the diversity that exists among the world’s languages. In this regard, the Linguistics Olympiad offers a unique opportunity to broaden horizons, open minds and, why not, play with language", says Salvador Pons.

"This experience goes beyond the scope of the competition: it is a celebration of the talent, intellectual curiosity and analytical ability of young people who have discovered in linguistics an exciting way to understand language and, through it, cultural and human diversity. Their effort and dedication demonstrate that the humanities and the language sciences inspire vocations and provide essential tools for tackling the challenges of a society in constant transformation", highlights María Rosa Álvarez Sellers.

Collaboration with Divina Seguros

Divina Seguros, an insurance company with over 65 years of experience, is sponsoring this project as part of its commitment to supporting young talent, thereby reaffirming its dedication to initiatives that, like this Olympiad, foster academic excellence. Through this collaboration, the company seeks to recognise the effort and dedication of the participating students.

Photo caption:

• Spanish team, with María Rosa Álvarez, Salvador Pons and Violeta Martínez-Paricio.