When you come down under for ALT, be sure to pick up some basic knowledge about the languages of the region. ALT 2017 is offering teach-ins on Papuan, Austronesian and Australian languages on the Monday right before the meeting. Sign up for these classes right away!

(Also, don’t forget that the regular, cheaper, registration is only open until this Sunday, October 1st.)

Here are some helpful maps of the region to wet your appetite !

1) languages of New Guinea grouped into language families (Glottolog)

2) Division of Oceania into Near/Remote Oceania or Polynesia/Micronesia/Melanesia (ANU Cartography/CartoGIS)

3) Horton’s famous map of Australian languages from 1994

4) Spread of Austronesian language family (ANU Cartography/CartoGIS)

5) Polynesian languages and their family relations as displayed onto a map (Levison, Ward & Webb 1973)

If you’re coming for this years ALT here in Canberra, you might have some practical questions. We’ve put up helpful information on the conference website: http://www.dynamicsoflanguage.edu.au/alt-conference-2017/venue/

There is information on:

• traveling
• childcare
• visas
• restaurants
• free bikes (free bikes, yes it’s true! First come first served)
• buses
• weather

We hope you find this helpful and are looking forward to welcoming you to Canberra!