*excluding 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic
The regular audience of the school are high school and early University students at the approximate age range between 14 and 20 but we tend to accept as listeners everyone with a true passion for linguistics. We’re especially aiming at participants of national olympiads in linguistics but of course not disregarding the kids who just have natural interest in languages and science.
We’re happy to announce that the 24th Traditional Summer Linguistics School for high school students this year will be held with approximate dates scheduled as July 6–17, 2025.
- dates: 6.07.2025 – 17.07.2025
- price: 800€ (incl. accomodation, meals, excursion, transfer to and from Tallinn airport)
- language: English
- application deadline: 30.04.2025
- apply in a free format: olevi26@gmail.com
- In your application please write a few words about yourself, your record in linguistics competitions (if any), generally write why you decided to apply, and anything else you find appropriate.
This year our summer school is planned to be held according to the same model that proved successful in the last 4 consequent years, after the covid break, that is we expect most participants to be from various countries of Europe, and the official language of the event will be English. Already traditionally, courses on different fields of modern linguistics will go in the programme along with short courses of different languages of the world. Classes on solving linguistic problems are also programmed. The courses will be taught by professional linguists and university teachers from Estonia, Finland, Israel, Germany, Sweden, France, Poland, Spain, Brazil etc., the exact list and programme to be confirmed closer to the event.
The potential audience of the school is high school and early University students at the approximate age range between 14 and 20 but we tend to accept as listeners everyone with a true passion for linguistics. We’re especially aiming at participants of national Olympiads in linguistics but of course not disregarding the kids who just have natural interest in languages and science.
We are extremely proud that last year our school was a real success, and the audience went up to as many as 38 participants from 14 different countries, which is a new record. However, our capacity is limited, and we reserve the right to close the application process once our limit is reached even if this happens before the below mentioned deadline.
The venue will be, as usual, hostel Laine, with the price of 800 euro including accommodation, meals, and the transfer from Tallinn and back. One day excursion to Tartu or Narva is also scheduled and included in the price.
The students were introduced into various fields of modern linguistic knowledge, such as phonetics and phonology, general syntax, etymology, various layers of pragmatics, basics of field work, status of endangered languages, language spread and diversity, different aspects of applied linguistics, etc. Traditionally, courses on several languages of the world were given in the afternoon, this time including Karaim, Polish, Estonian and Basque.
Additionally, every day the students had a chance to practice their skills in solving linguistic problems. 6 of our participants travelled further on to Brazil after the School to take part in the International Linguistics Olympiad, three of them winning prizes:
Olga Besova (Israel): 🥉 bronze medal
Ignacy Jackl (Poland): 🥉 bronze medal
Mikhail Iomdin (Germany): 🥈 silver medal
Halfway through the school we also had a very interesting and informative excursion to Narva guided by the quite famous local guide Alexander Openko, many thanks to him for being with us on that day!
As it happens every year, everyone also had a lot of fun in the evenings playing various language games, practising historical dances in the parking lot, which has also already become a tradition, and sometimes simply gazing at the breathtaking Baltic Sea sunsets.
We also plan to publish presentations of some courses with general permission of the teachers, stay tuned!
