Welcome to the NEMLAR newsletter. We bring you the latest news on language resources and language technologies for the Arabic language and keep you abreast of the results achieved in the project, upcoming events, and other useful information. A version of this newsletter is also available from: http://www.nemlar.org/Newsletter To subscribe, please send an email to: nemlar@cst.dk If you find this newsletter useful and informative, feel free to forward it to others. The newsletter will appear every quarter. Please send any feedback you may have to: nemlar@cst.dk NEMLAR is a European Commission supported initiative dedicated to surveying the state of the art of language resources for the Arabic language and the needs for such resources. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter Content ------------------ 1. The objectives of NEMLAR 2. What will NEMLAR produce? 3. How to contribute to the NEMLAR network 4. Upcoming Events 5. Links 1. The objectives of NEMLAR *************************** The NEMLAR (Network for Euro-Mediterranean LAnguage Resources) project intends to create a network of Euro-Mediterranean partners to specify and support the development of high priority Language Resources (LR) for Arabic and other local languages in a systematic, standard-driven, collaborative learning context. The project will focus on identifying the state of the art of LRs in the region, assessing priority requirements through consultations with language industry and communication players, and establishing a protocol for developing a basic LR kit for the major forms of the region’s predominant language – Arabic, and other local wide-spoken languages where appropriate. The NEMLAR project is currently implemented by a team of 14 partners representing 9 countries: Egypt, Tunisia, West Bank & Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, The Netherlands, France, and Denmark. For more information, please visit http://www.nemlar.org To contact the project organisers: Center for Sprogteknologi (CST) Project Co-ordinator: Bente Maegaard Tel: +45 35 32 90 74, Fax: +45 35 32 90 89 email: nemlar@cst.dk ******************************************************************************** 2. What will NEMLAR produce? **************************** Among the results that will be provided by NEMLAR: • A report on existing language resources for the Arabic language, available on the web site from December 2003 • A report on Language Technology industry needs for Arabic language resources, available on the web site from December 2003 • Specifications of a Basic Language Resource Kit for Arabic and local languages, available on the web site from March 2004 • International conference on the state of the art in Arabic and local language resources, taking place in fall 2004 • Newsletter appearing every quarter: June, September, December, and March For more information, please visit: http://www.nemlar.org or contact the Co-ordinator: nemlar@cst.dk ************************************************************************ 3. How to contribute to the NEMLAR network ****************************************** The NEMLAR project consists of 14 partners from 9 different countries: Egypt, Tunisia, West Bank & Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, The Netherlands, France, and Denmark. If you wish to contribute to the work of the NEMLAR project you may fill in the survey questionnaire about your language resources and/or the industry needs for language resources. Visit the NEMALR web site in order to answer the survey questionnaire: http://www.nemlar.org/Survey-questionnaires 4. Upcoming Events ***************** •L'ingénierie de la langue arabe :état de l'art et perspectives, Morocco, June 16, 2003, http://www.ensias.ma/jarabe/ • Machine Translation for Semitic Languages: Issues and Approaches, Workshop at MT Summit IX, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, September 27, 2003, http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~alavie/semitic-MT-wshp.html • The Fourth Conference on Language Engineering, Cairo, October 21-22, 2003. • LangTech 2003, Paris, November 24-25 2003, http://www.lang-tech.org/ For more information, please visit http://www.nemlar.org/Events ******************************************************************************** 5. Links ******** Visit the Linguist List related to Arabic language: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/arabic-l.html List of pointers to Arabic and other Semitic NLP and Speech sites: http://www.elsnet.org/arabiclist.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send an email to: nemlar@cst.dk This newsletter is published by the NEMLAR project (http://www.nemlar.org) and produced by Center for Sprogteknologi.