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Welcome to the Association of Contemporary African Linguistics!
The Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL) was first convened in 1970 and has since been held every year at various sites throughout North America. The affiliated Association of Contemporary African Linguistics, founded in 2013 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity, has the same mission: to advance and sustain the linguistic study of African languages. The Association (with the same acronym) seeks to continue and provide stability to that tradition and to the conference itself. The Association solicits support from ACAL’s attendees to guarantee the conference’s stability into the future.

We as an organization welcome all members from any country or background.

ACAL Awards
The first ACAL Lifetime Achievement Award was given in 2018 to Professor Dr. Eyamba Bokamba of the University of Illinois. He has been a leading scholar in the field of African linguistics, and has been a leading figure in ACAL conferences, with Illinois hosting the conference several times.

NEW Conference Proceedings
Papers from the 47th ACAL (Berkeley) are now available! See the “Past Conferences” tab.

Next ACAL Conferences

ACAL51 will be hosted by Rutgers University, May 21-24, 2020. Details will be forthcoming.

ACAL 50 in 2019 was hosted by the University of British Columbia, from 23-25 May, 2019. Additional satellite workshops were held 22-23 May. The Conference home page is here.