Welcome to the NEMLAR newsletter. We bring you the latest news on language resources and language technologies for Arabic in Europe and the Southern Mediterranean countries 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, to providing a BLARK specification for Arabic and to promote the development of Arabic language resources - in Europe and the Southern Mediterranean countries. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter Content ------------------ 1. A Basic Language Resource Kit (BLARK) for Arabic 2. Publication of the Report on Industrial Needs for Arabic Language Resources 3. The Arabic Language Resources and Tools conference - Summary 4. How to contribute to the NEMLAR network 5. Would you like to join the NEMLAR network? 6. New language resources, books, papers, software and journals 7. Links 1. A Basic Language Resource Kit (BLARK) for Arabic **************************************************** A report on Basic Language Resource Kit (BLARK) for Arabic is available on the http://www.nemlar.org/Publications/BLARK-final.pdf. The report specifices which language resources and tools are essential for the development of (pre-competitive) language technology handling the for the Arabic language automatically. The report also includes a list of existing LRs, their availability and a list of missing LRs. 2. Publication of the Report on Industrial Needs for Arabic Language Resources ****************************************************************************** The Nemlar consortium has written A report on Industrial Needs for Linguistic Resources for Arabic which is now available. The report shows that there exists a need for Arabic Language Resources, not only in Arabic countries but also in Europe and USA. A number of key HLT European and American companies are for Arabic language resources interested in the development of the Arabic Language technologies. The main interest for language resources is focused on written, in particular lexica and text corpora. The needs for speech are mostly focused on read and prepared data. Read more in the report which is available at http://www.nemlar.org/Publications/Nemlar-report-ind-needs_web.pdf ********************************************************************* 3. The Arabic Language Resources and Tools conference - Summary *************************************************************** The Nemlar consortium organised the first international conference on Arabic Language Resources and Tools in Cairo, Egypt, on September 22-23 2004. The local organisation was taken very well care of by the Egyptian company RDI - The Engineering company for computer systems development. The conference focused on Arabic language technology and on the necessary language resources and tools for both research and commercial development of language technology for Arabic. The conference had 98 participants, from five continents with representatives from industry, research, students and the press. The conference was a success, both in terms of participation and in terms of content, and it was agreed that the NEMLAR partners should try to organise a follow-up, together with interested parties. The follow-up will be organised in two years time, if possible. During the two days conference 16 papers, 7 posters and 5 demonstrations were presented. The papers, posters and some of the demonstrations are published in proceedings both on paper and on a CD. Both may be purchased by contacting email: nemlar@cst.dk, and further details on prices can be found at http://nemlar.org/proceedings.html ********************************************************************* 4. How to contribute to the NEMLAR network ****************************************** 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 industrial needs for language resources. Visit the NEMLAR web site in order to answer the survey questionnaire: http://www.nemlar.org/Survey-questionnaires ********************************************************************* 5. Would you like to join the NEMLAR network? ********************************************* NEMLAR now wants to extend the network to all interested parties, i.e. everyone who wants to contribute to the NEMLAR goals and everyone who is interested in following the development in Arabic language resources. We hope that the extended NEMLAR network we will soon become a strong community in the field of Arabic language resources. You join the network by sending an email to nemlar@cst.dk, giving you name, affiliation with address, phone and fax, and your URL. Your name, affiliation, and URL will be published on the NEMLAR web site, but we will not give your address, your phone or your email for privacy reasons. All members of the network will receive the NEMLAR newsletter and any other relevant information. 6. New language resources, books, papers, software and journals *************************************************************** Books: • Variation in Modern Standard Arabic in Radio News Broadcasts, A Synchronic Descriptive Investigation into the Use of Complementary Particles. For more information see http://nemlar.org/broad_cast_leuven.txt • Al-Kitaab fii Ta allum al-Arabiyya with DVDs, Textbook for Beginning Arabic. For more information see http://www.press.georgetown.edu/detail.html?session=ef1bb3d99eca0df6088a0aaa95e24039&id=158901104X Newsletter: • The National Capital Language Resource Center - first bi-lingual Arabic/English newsletter for Arabic K-12 teachers. For more information see http://www.nemlar.org/NCLRC_newsletter.txt Articles: • "A re-examination of the default system for Arabic plurals" by Sami Boudelaa and M. Gareth Gaskell. For more information see http://www.nemlar.org/Scientific-papers • "Morphological units in the Arabic mental lexicon" by Sami Boudelaa and William D. Marslen-Wilson. For more information see http://www.nemlar.org/Scientific-papers • "Abstract morphemes and lexical representation: the CV-Skeleton in Arabic" by Sami Boudelaa and William D. Marslen-Wilson. For more information see http://www.nemlar.org/Scientific-papers • "Allomorphic variation in Arabic: Implications for lexical processing and representation" by Sami Boudelaa and William D. Marslen-Wilson. For more information see http://www.nemlar.org/Scientific-papers Software: • Arabic-Hebrew Cross-Language Search with Embedded Translation. For more information see http://www.melingo.com/INDEX.HTM Visit the NEMLAR web site for more information: http://www.nemlar.org ********************************************************************* 7. Links ******** • ELRA distributes Arabic language resources: http://www.elra.info • Linguistic Data Consortium also distributes Arabic language resources - LDC: http://www.ldc.upenn.edu • Link to Arabic NLP technologies at RDI (to be found under the submenu item 'Arabic NLP' under the main menu item 'Technologies'): http://www.RDI-eg.com • The Faharis Site, list of Arabic web resources: http://www.faharis.net • 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 • Lists of websites with theses dealing with Arabic human language technologies http://www.biomath.jussieu.fr/ATALA/these/#Idx3 http://www.technolangue.net/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=11 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. To contact the project co-ordinator: 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