ISCA-WANA (West Asia and North Africa) Subcommittee

The International Speech Communication Association (ISCA),  is a non-profit association aiming "to promote Speech Communication Science and Technology, both in the industrial and Academic areas".

The International Affairs committee of ISCA established the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) regional subcommittee in spring 2006 to promote ISCA and more particularly  Research and Development in Speech Communication in the region.

A major characteristic of the WANA Region is the dominancy of the Arabic language. The significant number of different Arabic dialects should also be noted when discussing the region. However, in addition to these dialects, other important languages are also spoken in the region. These are generally Semitic language (e.g. Hebrew, Syriac etc.)

Some speech communication research work is being conducted in the region using the resources available for the various languages and dialects.  The WANA subcommittee aims to reinforce communication within the speech scientific and technical community in the region and their interaction with the international community.