{"id":6227,"date":"2019-12-04T06:08:12","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T06:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/rail2020\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T07:20:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T05:20:05","slug":"rail2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/rail2020\/","title":{"rendered":"First workshop on Resources for African Indigenous Languages (RAIL)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"googlefontscall\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"pagebuilderckparams\" data-colorpalettefromtemplate=\"\" data-colorpalettefromsettings=\",,,,\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"row_ID1575438885992\" class=\"rowck ckstack3 ckstack2 ckstack1 uick-sortable\" style=\"position: relative;\" data-gutter=\"2%\" data-nb=\"1\">\n<style class=\"ckcolumnwidth\">[data-gutter=\"2%\"][data-nb=\"1\"]:not(.ckadvancedlayout) [data-width=\"100\"] {width:100%;}[data-gutter=\"2%\"][data-nb=\"1\"].ckadvancedlayout [data-width=\"100\"] {width:100%;}[data-gutter=\"2%\"][data-nb=\"1\"]:not(.ckadvancedlayout) .blockck:not(:first-child) {margin-left:2%;}<\/style>\n<div class=\"inner animate clearfix\">\n<div id=\"block_ID1575438885992\" class=\"blockck\" style=\"position: relative;\" data-real-width=\"100%\" data-width=\"100\">\n<div class=\"ckstyle\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"inner animate resizable\">\n<div class=\"innercontent uick-sortable\">\n<div id=\"ID1575438906870\" class=\"cktype\" style=\"position: relative;\" data-type=\"text\">\n<div class=\"tab_blocstyles ckprops\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tab_edition ckprops\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"ckstyle\">\n<style><\/style>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"cktext inner\" style=\"position: relative;\" spellcheck=\"false\">\n<h4><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">First workshop on Resources for African Indigenous Languages (RAIL)<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Free, online workshop<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">LREC 2020<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">The South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) is organizing a workshop (originally expected to be held at the LREC 2020 conference in Marseille, France) in the field of African Indigenous Language Resources. This workshop aims to bring together researchers who are interested in showcasing their research and thereby boosting the field of African indigenous languages. This provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art and emphasizes availability of African indigenous language resources, including both data and tools. Additionally, it allows for information sharing among researchers interested in African indigenous languages as well as starting discussions on improving the quality and availability of the resources.\u00a0 Many African indigenous languages currently have no or very limited resources available and, additionally, they are often structurally quite different from more well-resourced languages, requiring the development and use of specialized techniques. By bringing together researchers from different fields (e.g., (computational) linguistics, sociolinguistics, language technology) to discuss the development of language resources for African indigenous languages, we hope to boost research in this field.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">The Resources for African Indigenous Languages (RAIL) workshop is an interdisciplinary platform for researchers working on resources (data collections, tools, etc.) specifically targeted towards African indigenous languages.\u00a0 It aims to create the conditions for the emergence of a scientific community of practice that focuses on data, as well as tools, specifically designed for or applied to indigenous languages found in Africa. With the UNESCO-supported International Year of Indigenous Languages, there is currently much interest in indigenous languages.\u00a0 The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues mentioned that &#8220;40 percent of the estimated 6,700 languages spoken around the world were in danger of disappearing&#8221; and the &#8220;languages represent complex systems of knowledge and communication and should be recognized as a strategic national resource for development, peace building and reconciliation.&#8221; As such, the workshop falls within one of the hot topic areas of this year&#8217;s conference: &#8220;Less Resourced and Endangered Languages&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><strong>Topics include the following:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Language collections (description and creation)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lexicography<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Syntactic analysis<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Computational linguistic tools<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Wordnets<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><strong>Participation<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">The RAIL workshop will, unfortunately, not be held in Marseille, France this year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, the workshop will take place online. Participation is free. However, if you want to participate, you will need to register on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/first-workshop-on-resources-for-african-indigenous-languages-rail-tickets-104056933088\">EventBrite<\/a>. Details on how to join the workshop will be sent out to registered participants. The workshop will take place on Saturday 16 May 2020 from 9:00 until 13:00 SAST.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Details<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Free virtual workshop on African indigenous languages<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">16 May 9:00 to 13:00 SAST<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Register through <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/1stRAIL?fbclid=IwAR1nwJpEDxYJVtYJp6XkaVypY3ZDWkpvsJYy3IcBIh4S5fsdWYhYK2aUDXo\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/bit.ly\/1stRAIL<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><strong>Program<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">09:00-09:10 Opening and introduction<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">09:10-09:30 Endangered African Languages Featured in a Digital Collection: The Case of the \u2021Khomani San | Hugh Brody Collection<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kerry Jones and Sanjin Muftic<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">09:30-09:50 Usability and Accessibility of Bantu Language Dictionaries in the Digital Age: Mobile Access in an Open Environment<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thomas Eckart, Sonja Bosch, Uwe Quasthoff, Erik K\u00f6rner, Dirk Goldhahn and Simon Kaleschke<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">09:50-10:10 Investigating an Approach for Low Resource Language Dataset Creation, Curation and Classification: Setswana and Sepedi<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vukosi Marivate, Tshephisho Sefara and Abiodun Modupe<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10:10-10:30 Comparing Neural Network Parsers for a Less-resourced and Morphologically-rich Language: Amharic Dependency Parser<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Binyam Ephrem Seyoum, Yusuke Miyao and Baye Yimam Mekonnen<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10:30-10:50 Mobilizing Metadata: Open Data Kit (ODK) for Language Resource Development in East Africa<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Richard Griscom<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10:50-11:20 Coffee break<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">11:20-11:40 A Computational Grammar of Ga<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lars Hellan<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">11:40-12:00 Navigating Challenges of Multilingual Resource Development for Under-Resourced Languages: The Case of the African Wordnet Project<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marissa Griesel and Sonja Bosch<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">12:00-12:20 Building Collaboration-based Resources in Endowed African Languages: Case of NTeALan Dictionaries Platform<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Elvis Mboning Tchiaze, Jean Marc Bassahak, Daniel Baleba, Ornella Wandji and Jules Assoumou<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">12:20-13:00 Closing<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><strong>Identify, Describe and Share your LRs!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Describing your LRs in the LRE Map is now a normal practice in the submission procedure of LREC (introduced in 2010 and adopted by other conferences). To continue the efforts initiated at LREC 2014 about \u201cSharing LRs\u201d (data, tools, web-services, etc.), authors will have the possibility,\u00a0 when submitting a paper, to upload LRs in a special LREC repository. This effort of sharing LRs, linked to the LRE Map for their description, may become a new \u201cregular\u201d feature for conferences in our field, thus contributing to creating a common repository where everyone can deposit and share data.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As scientific work requires accurate citations of referenced work so as to allow the community to understand the whole context and also replicate the experiments conducted by other researchers, LREC 2020 endorses the need to uniquely Identify LRs through the use of the International Standard Language Resource Number (ISLRN,<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.islrn.org\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> www.islrn.org<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), a Persistent Unique Identifier to be assigned to each Language Resource. The assignment of ISLRNs to LRs cited in LREC papers\u00a0 will be offered at submission time.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><strong>Submission Guidelines<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">RAIL 2020 asks for full papers from 4 pages to 8 pages (plus more pages for references if needed) , which must strictly follow the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lrec2020.lrec-conf.org\/en\/submission2020\/authors-kit\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LREC stylesheet<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lrec2020.lrec-conf.org\/en\/submission2020\/authors-kit\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/lrec2020.lrec-conf.org\/en\/submission2020\/authors-kit\/<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) which will be available on the conference website. Papers must be submitted through\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.softconf.com\/lrec2020\/RAIL2020\/\">START<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.softconf.com\/lrec2020\/RAIL2020\/\">https:\/\/www.softconf.com\/lrec2020\/RAIL2020\/<\/a>) and will be peer-reviewed.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><strong>Important dates<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Submission deadline: <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">16 February 2020<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Extended deadline: <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">23 February 2020<\/span><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Date of notification: <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">13 March 2020<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Camera-ready copy deadline: <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">2 April 2020<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Workshop online: 9:00 until 13:00 SAST, 16 May 2020<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><strong>Organizing Committee<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/isizulu-researcher\/\">Rooweither Mabuya<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/?p=5858\">Phathutshedzo Ramukhadi<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/researcher-sesotho\/\">Mmasibidi Setaka<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/?p=5997\">Valencia Wagner<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/dh-prof\/\">Menno van Zaanen<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><a href=\"index.php\/en\/\">South African centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR), South Africa<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\"><strong>Programme committee<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Richard Ajah, University of Uyo, Nigeria<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Ayodele James Akinola, Chrisland University, Nigeria<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Felix Ameka, Leiden University, the Netherlands<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Sonja Bosch, University of South Africa, South Africa<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Ibrahima Ciss\u00e9, University of Humanities, Mali<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Roald Eiselen, Eiselen software consulting, South Africa<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Tanja Gaustad, Centre for Text Technology, South Africa<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Elias Malete, University of the Free State, South Africa<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Dimakatso Mathe, South African centre for Digital Language Resources, South Africa<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Elias Mathipa, University of South Africa, South Africa<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Fekede Menuta, Hawassa University, Ethiopia<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Innocentia Mhlambi, Wits University, South Africa<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Emmanuel Ngue Um, University of Yaound\u00e9 I, Cameroon<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Guy de Pauw, Antwerp University and Textgain, Belgium<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Sara Petrollino, Leiden University, the Netherlands<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Pule Phindane, Central University of Technology, South Africa<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Danie Prinsloo, University of Pretoria, South Africa<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Martin Puttkammer, Centre for Text Technology, South Africa<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Justus Roux, Stellenbosch University, South Africa<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Msindisi Sam, Rhodes University, South Africa<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, Ghent University, Belgium<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Lorraine Shabangu, Bangula Lingo Centre, South Africa<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Elsab\u00e9 Taljard, University of Pretoria, South Africa<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">Support<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva, sans-serif;\">This workshop is supported by <a href=\"http:\/\/videolectures.net\/rail2020\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Videolectures_net_net_logo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"299\" height=\"66\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 299px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 299\/66;\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ID1575438886015\" class=\"cktype\" style=\"position: relative;\" data-type=\"text\">\n<div class=\"ckstyle\">Note that the RAIL workshop is part of a series of workshops. You can find information on the other workshops at <a href=\"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/rail\/\">https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/rail\/<\/a>.<\/div>\n<div class=\"cktext inner\" style=\"position: relative;\" spellcheck=\"false\">\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ckstyle\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First workshop on Resources for African Indigenous Languages (RAIL) Free, online workshop LREC 2020 The South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) is organizing a workshop (originally expected to be held at the LREC 2020 conference in Marseille, France) in the field of African Indigenous Language Resources. This workshop aims to bring together researchers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":246,"featured_media":6226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[731],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/246"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6227"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12163,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6227\/revisions\/12163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sadilar.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}