Just as Anthony entered his second year as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Languages, he extended a warm welcome to John Nerbonne as Co-Editor-in-Chief beginning in 2026. John Nerbonne was affiliated with the University of Groningen’s Faculty of Arts in the Netherlands (with a courtesy appointment in Computer Science), as well as with the Faculty of Philology at Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg in Germany and the Words, Bones, Genes & Tools DFG Center at the University of Tübingen. His research interests encompass the following: language variation, especially dialectology and language contact; computer-assisted language learning; information extraction; simulations of language learning; as well as grammar modeling, semantics, and natural language interfaces. Known for his interdisciplinary approach, John’s work significantly advances our expertise in language structure, acquisition, and technology-driven language applications. He joins Anthony as co-editor in chief, and with his expertise and leadership, we would like to warmly invite submissions in the areas of descriptive and theoretical linguistics; historical linguistics; typology; language variation, including sociolinguistics; language documentation for endangered languages, and research methods.
The new team has broadened the scope of
Languages to include most of linguistics and restructured its presentation to follow conventional subdivisions (
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages/about). We would like to be more receptive to the “core” descriptive and theoretical topics, such as phonetics and phonology; grammar (morphosyntax); and semantics, pragmatics, and morphosyntax, including their computational models. We shall continue publishing papers on language learning, including computational models of human learning, but also papers on language attrition. We are now more specifically interested in quantitative studies of typology, but also studies on language genealogy, language contact, and areal linguistics. We believe that progress in language documentation can improve our knowledge of how languages function. Finally, we wish to continue to offer a place for work on the relation of linguistics to psychology, anthropology, and other social sciences.
We are pleased to share that we have a strong team of Editorial Board Members totaling 75, including 16 new members who joined in 2025. Last year, we also promoted three Editorial Board Members to the position of Associate Editor in recognition of their ongoing and significant contributions to Languages. These individuals included Dr. Elena Babatsouli from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Professor Donna Erickson from Haskins Laboratories (New Haven, CT, USA) and Sophia University (Japan), and Dr. Yosuke Sato from Tsuda University (Japan). Their expertise and insights in advising the Editors-in-Chief on the journal’s Aims and Scope are vital to upholding the high standards of Languages. Additionally, their support and guidance to the Editorial Board Members and Editorial Staff have been essential.
We would also like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to Professor Jeanine Treffers-Daller for her dedicated service as Co-Editor-in-Chief. During her tenure between 2023 and 2025, she made significant contributions to Languages, notably overseeing the journal’s achievement of a 2024 Impact Factor of 1.2 and a 2024 CiteScore of 1.8. Professor Treffers-Daller will continue to serve on our Editorial Board and provide valuable guidance and support to Languages’ ongoing development.
Wishing everyone a successful and fruitful 2026, and we eagerly anticipate your valuable contributions to Languages.
Best regards,
Anthony Pak-Hin Kong and John Nerbonne (Co-Editors-in-Chief)
