Special Interest Group: Language & Speech Technology Development

• Background

The Special Interest Group for Language and Speech Technology Development was founded in July 1999 after a pre-conference tutorial on African Language Engineering in the next Millennium. This tutorial which was partially sponsored by PanSALB, preceded the 10th Biennial International Conference of the African Language Association of Southern Africa (ALASA).

• Aims

1. To introduce linguists working in the African languages to the challenges in the fast developing field of HLT;
2. To act as catalyst for the development of language and speech technology in South Africa;
3. To facilitate short term capacity building by identifying interested individuals and expertise in this field with a view to organising informal training sessions in HLT at different venues across the country;
4. To facilitate long term capacity building through research into the restructuring of curricula at tertiary levels.