{"id":42,"date":"2024-07-15T14:20:35","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T14:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/abjad\/?page_id=42"},"modified":"2026-01-19T07:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T07:14:11","slug":"cfp","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/abjad\/cfp\/","title":{"rendered":"Call for Papers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Call for Papers<\/span><\/h2>\n

The 2nd Workshop on NLP for Languages Using Arabic Script (AbjadNLP 2026)<\/span><\/h3>\n

Rabat, Morocco (in-person)<\/strong><\/span>
Co-located with The 19th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (EACL 2026)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcd8 Previous proceedings of AbjadNLP 2025 can be found at:<\/em> https:\/\/aclanthology.org\/volumes\/2025.abjadnlp-1\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Overview<\/span><\/h3>\n

AbjadNLP<\/strong> focuses on advancing Natural Language Processing (NLP)<\/strong> for the Arabic language<\/strong>, its many dialects<\/strong>, and the broad family of languages that use the Arabic script<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Building on the success of AbjadNLP 2025<\/strong> at COLING in Abu Dhabi, the 2026 edition will be held in Rabat, Morocco<\/strong>, co-located with EACL 2026<\/strong>. The workshop is now officially part of SIGARAB \u2014 the ACL Special Interest Group on Arabic NLP \u2014<\/strong> reinforcing our long-term commitment to community-driven research and capacity building for Arabic-script languages. We also work closely with the Masakhane NLP<\/strong> community in Africa, with organisers from both initiatives actively collaborating.<\/span><\/p>\n

At its core, AbjadNLP provides a platform for cutting-edge research in Arabic NLP<\/strong>, encompassing Modern Standard Arabic<\/strong>, Classical Arabic<\/strong>, and Arabic dialects<\/strong>, while also encouraging work on Abjad<\/strong> and Ajami<\/strong> languages that employ Arabic, Perso-Arabic, and other script variations. These include Persian (Farsi)<\/strong>, Urdu<\/strong>, Pashto<\/strong>, Kurdish (Sorani and Kurmanji)<\/strong>, Azeri Turkish<\/strong>, Ottoman Turkish<\/strong>, Sindhi<\/strong>, and Uyghur<\/strong>, as well as African Ajami languages<\/strong> such as Hausa<\/strong>, Fula<\/strong>, Wolofal<\/strong>, Swahili<\/strong>, Kanuri<\/strong>, Mandingo<\/strong>, and Tamazight (Berber)<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Together, these languages represent nearly one billion speakers<\/strong> across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia \u2014 a vast linguistic community that remains underrepresented in computational research. AbjadNLP seeks to bridge this gap by promoting inclusive, resource-driven, and culturally aware NLP that empowers both Arabic and non-Arabic languages written in the Arabic script.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Topics of Interest<\/span><\/h3>\n

We invite submissions on all aspects of NLP for Arabic-script languages<\/strong>, broadly defined to include Arabic and its dialects<\/strong>, Perso-Arabic languages<\/strong>, and Ajami traditions<\/strong> across Africa and Asia. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:<\/span><\/p>\n