37.2728, Confs: The 1st International Conference on Glottometry (Japan)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2728. Tue Aug 25 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2728, Confs: The 1st International Conference on Glottometry (Japan)

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Date: 21-Aug-2026
From: Ian Joo [joo at res.otaru-uc.ac.jp]
Subject: The 1st International Conference on Glottometry


The 1st International Conference on Glottometry
Short Title: GlottoConf1

Date: 26-Jul-2027 - 28-Jul-2027
Location: Otaru, Japan
Meeting URL: https://ianjoo.github.io/glottoconf

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics

Submission Deadline: 31-Mar-2027

About:
The 1st International Conference on Glottometry (GlottoConf1) is a
conference dedicated to the art of measuring distance (the
quantifiable degree of dissimilarity) between linguistic varieties. It
will be held in hybrid mode in Otaru, Japan on 26–28 July 2027.
Plenary Speakers:
 - Szeto Pui Yiu (University of Hong Kong) - TBA
 - Hedvig Skirgård (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology) - Between Clusters and Continua: A Tour of Tools for
Lect Comparison
When comparing languages, there are many different tools at our
disposal and considerations to take into account. In this talk, I
showcase some powerful methods for exploring language dissimilarity
(neighbour-nets, cultural fixation scores, tests of phylogenetic
signal and dimensionality reduction techniques) as well as highlight
some important aspect such as the underlying assumptions of these
tools, feature dependencies and feature selection.
We call for oral presentations of undergoing or recently completed
studies on measuring the distance between linguistic varieties, which
we name as glottometry.
The distance can be at any linguistic level (between “languages” or
“dialects”) and of any domain, including:
 - Acoustic distance
 - Articulatory distance
 - Phonological distance
 - Lexical distance
 - Semantic distance
 - Morphological distance
 - Syntactic distance
 - Visual/graphic distance
 - Perceived distance
 - Geographical distance
 - Intra-familial distance
 - Inter-familial distance
 - Cross-modal distance
Please send a 2-page abstract (including everything) in the following
format:
 - A4 paper
 - 2.5cm margin
 - 12pt Times New Roman
Please send your anonymized abstract to joo at res.otaru-uc.ac.jp. It
will then be reviewed by two anonymous reviewers.
The deadline is 31 March 2027. Decisions will be communicated to you
on a rolling basis within two weeks after the submission (and not
necessarily after the deadline). We thus encourage you to submit as
soon as your abstract is ready so that you can plan your trip well in
advance.
Format of the Conference:
GlottoConf1 is a hybrid conference featuring both on-site and online
presentations.
The language of the conference is English. Live captions in English
will be provided during the presentations.
Participation Fee:
The participation fee is 5,000 Japanese yen for student presenters and
10,000 yen for non-student presenters. It is free for non-presenting
auditors.
The fee is waived for participants studying or working at a
institution of a low income or lower middle income country (as defined
by World Bank).
Venue:
GlottoConf1 will be held at the Otaru University of Commerce, located
in Otaru, Japan.
About Otaru:
Otaru is a small coastal city in Hokkaido, the northernmost province
of Japan. It is a popular tourist destination constantly rated as one
of the most attractive Japanese cities.
The Otaru Ushio Festival is held at the end of July every year, which
the participants of GlottoConf1 may also be able to enjoy.
The nearest airport is the New Chitose Airport (CTS), which has
connections to several major Asian Pacific cities.



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