Prize-giving ceremony for the "Déchiffreurs de langues" 2026 competition

Les Déchiffreurs de Langues" is an educational linguistics competition organized as part of the Cordées de la Réussite program, and open to all French-speaking high school students.
Les quatre lauréats du concours avec leurs prix
Lauréats du concours "Déchiffreurs de langues" © Sonia Leconte / Inalco‎

Program

  • 9:45-10:45am - Meeting with Raphaël Otho (PLIDAM), a PhD student in linguistics who studies Laari, around linguistics, diversity and the study of languages.
  • 10:45am-11:15am - A look back at the riddles from the third edition of the competition, announcement of the winners and prize-giving ceremony.
  • 11:15-12:30- Screening of documentary "Sur le bout de la langue", by Vincent Bonnay followed by an exchange with Guillaume Leduey.

Synopsis: "AwA'ahdah", "iishuh", "ilah qe'xleh" words from the end of the world, forgotten, that have almost lost all meaning, even in the eyes of their people. In Alaska, the Eyak language "died" in 2008. But is there life after death? The Eyaks want to believe so.
The last speaker, Chief Marie Smith Jones, had a dream before she died, that someone would come from far away to help them. Two years later, the providential hope arrived by ferry. Guillaume Leduey, a 21-year-old Frenchman who had been fascinated by these native languages since he was 13, set foot in Alaska, on the land of a people whose language he had learned, alone, in Le Havre.

Moderated by Florian Targa, educational engineer at Inalco and coordinator of the corded "Languages and Cultures of the World" of Inalco.