NTU Hosts 35th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society

NTU Singapore welcomed linguists and language researchers from around the world for the 35th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (SEALS), held from 3 to 5 June 2026.

Organised by the School of Humanities, the three-day conference brought together scholars, researchers, and students to exchange ideas and present their research in the study of Southeast Asian languages. The programme featured 84 oral presentations and 12 poster presentations, showcasing the breadth and diversity of contemporary linguistic research across the region. The conference was jointly led by Assistant Professor Tamisha Lauren Tan and Assistant Professor Yunfan Lai from NTU Linguistics and Multilingual Studies.

A hallmark of the conference is its emphasis on lesser-studied languages and language varieties. Research presented at SEALS spans the major language families of Southeast Asia, including Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Hmong-Mien, Tibeto-Burman, and Tai-Kadai languages. Particular attention is given to minority and endangered languages, many of which remain underrepresented in linguistic scholarship despite their cultural and historical significance.

The conference also featured two distinguished plenary speakers. Dr Laura Arnold from The Australian National University delivered a keynote address titled Raja Ampat at the Edge of Southeast Asia: Macro-perspectives on Micro-histories, exploring linguistic and historical developments at the geographical margins of Southeast Asia. Dr Trang Phan from Ca' Foscari University of Venice presented Counting and Referring: Classifiers, Plurals, and Articles from a Vietnamese Perspective, offering insights into the relationship between grammar and reference in Vietnamese and its implications for linguistic theory.