10th Anniversary Celebration Issue – Languages at the Crossroads: Celebrating a Decade of Innovation and Future Horizons in Language Science

Dear Colleagues,

Languages will mark its tenth anniversary in 2026, and we would like to celebrate the occasion with a Special Issue documenting and discussing advances in statu nascendi. Our focus will not only be on the groundbreaking developments that have already transformed the field or are highly likely to do so, but also on the promising innovations that hold potential to impact the field in the future.

We seek to showcase the latest advancements, innovative methodologies, and emerging theories that are shaping the future of linguistic research. We not only aim to highlight how these developments are deepening our understanding of language structure and use, but also how they are opening new avenues for interdisciplinary collaboration and practical applications. Ultimately, this Special Issue will serve as a comprehensive snapshot of the field’s dynamic evolution, fostering dialogue among researchers, practitioners, and scholars interested in the ongoing and future transformations of language science.

We welcome submissions on all topics, with particular interest in the following areas:

• Discriminative theories of language understanding;
• Language and cognitive processing;
• Language contact;
• Language disorders;
• Language evolution;
• Language learning and acquisition;
• Language typology;
• Language universals;
• Language variation;
• Neurolinguistics;
• Phraseology, idiomaticity, frequency, and Grammar;
• Phylogenetic inference;
• Prosody and meaning;
• Technology for documenting unwritten languages.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Special Issue Editors (Anthony Pak-Hin Kong and John Nerbonne, akong@hku.hk and j.nerbonne@rug.nl) or to the Languages editorial office (languages@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of this Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Tentative Completion Schedule:
Abstract Submission Deadline: 31 May 2026
Full Manuscript Deadline: 30 November 2026

Prof. Dr. Anthony Pak-Hin Kong
Prof. Dr. John Nerbonne
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• language processing
• language acquisition
• language variation
• language evolution
• neurolinguistics