36.3181, Confs: 1st Workshop on NLP and Large Language Models for the Iranian Language Family (Morocco)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-3181. Tue Oct 21 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.3181, Confs: 1st Workshop on NLP and Large Language Models for the Iranian Language Family (Morocco)

Moderator: Steven Moran (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Managing Editor: Valeriia Vyshnevetska
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Mara Baccaro, Daniel Swanson
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Editor for this issue: Valeriia Vyshnevetska <valeriia at linguistlist.org>

================================================================


Date: 20-Oct-2025
From: Karine Megerdoomian [info at zoornainstitute.org]
Subject: 1st Workshop on NLP and Large Language Models for the Iranian Language Family


1st Workshop on NLP and Large Language Models for the Iranian Language
Family
Short Title: SilkRoadNLP

Date: 28-Oct-2025 - 29-Oct-2025
Location: Rabat, Morocco
Contact: Karine Megerdoomian
Contact Email: karine at zoornainstitute.org
Meeting URL: https://www.silkroadnlp.org/

Linguistic Field(s): Computational Linguistics; General Linguistics;
Language Documentation; Text/Corpus Linguistics; Typology
Subject Language(s): Baluchi (bal)
                     Dari (prs)
                     Kurdish (kur)
                     Persian (fas)
                     Tajik (tgk)
Language Family(ies): Iranian

Submission Deadline: 08-Jan-2026

The inaugural SilkRoadNLP workshop provides a platform for advancing
Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Models (LLMs) for
the Iranian linguistic family—a diverse group of languages spoken
across Iran, Afghanistan, Central and South Asia, and the Caucasus. We
welcome work that bridges computational methods with linguistic,
social, and cultural perspectives to ensure that the technologies
shaping the future of language reflect this region’s diversity and
depth.
Recent advances in LLMs have transformed the field of NLP, yet the
languages of the Iranian linguistic group remain underrepresented.
While Persian has received some attention, many languages and dialects
of the Iranian language family—such as Kurdish, Balochi, Gilaki,
Mazandarani, Luri, Pashto, Ossetian, and others—remain low-resource,
with limited digital presence, benchmarks, and system support. Many of
these minority languages are endangered or at risk of further
marginalization. Even within Persian, regional standards (Iranian,
Afghan/Dari, and Tajiki) differ substantially in orthography,
phonology, and lexicon, creating additional complexity for
multilingual NLP and LLM adaptation.
SilkRoadNLP will be the first ACL-affiliated forum dedicated to the
computational study of the Iranian language family in the LLM era. The
workshop aims to:
- Highlight advances in NLP analysis, datasets, benchmarks, and
modeling
- Explore responsible LLM extensions
- Address cultural and socio-pragmatic challenges
- Foster cross-disciplinary collaboration
- Create a centralized resource hub
We welcome research on all languages of the Iranian linguistic family,
including those spoken across Central Asia, the Caucasus, Afghanistan,
Pakistan, and diaspora communities, reflecting the broad reach of the
linguistic group.
SilkRoadNLP 2026 is co-located with the European Chapter of the
Association for Computational Linguistics (EACL) 2026, in Rabat,
Morocco.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------

********************** LINGUIST List Support ***********************
Please consider donating to the Linguist List, a U.S. 501(c)(3) not for profit organization:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=87C2AXTVC4PP8

LINGUIST List is supported by the following publishers:

Bloomsbury Publishing http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics

Cascadilla Press http://www.cascadilla.com/

De Gruyter Brill https://www.degruyterbrill.com/?changeLang=en

Edinburgh University Press http://www.edinburghuniversitypress.com

John Benjamins http://www.benjamins.com/

Language Science Press http://langsci-press.org

Lincom GmbH https://lincom-shop.eu/

MIT Press http://mitpress.mit.edu/

Multilingual Matters http://www.multilingual-matters.com/

Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG http://www.narr.de/

Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT) http://www.lotpublications.nl/

Peter Lang AG http://www.peterlang.com


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-36-3181
----------------------------------------------------------