Prosody is a universal characteristic of human speech: prosodic prominence and phrasing give listeners a window into the mind of the talker. Prosody improves human-computer interface, aids clinical diagnosis, improves the quality of second language instruction, increases the robustness of speech communication, and serves as the only channel for communicating many types of meta-linguistic and para-linguistic spoken information. The study of prosody is the study of a process mapping from a message, including possibly linguistic, social, or other para-linguistic messages, to signals, either acoustic or articulatory.

The International Conference on Speech Prosody is a biennial meeting of the Speech Prosody Special Interest Group (SProSIG) of the International Speech Communication Association (ISCA), and is the only recurring international conference focused on prosody as an organizing principle for the social, psychological, linguistic, and technological aspects of spoken language. Past conferences in Aix-en-Provence, Nara, Dresden, Campinas and Chicago have each attracted 300-400 delegates, including experts in the fields of Linguistics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Communication Disorders, Psychology, and related disciplines. Over the years, Speech Prosody has developed into one of the most interdisciplinary of international conferences.

Speech Prosody 2012 will be jointly organized by Tongji University, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Chinese Academy of Sciences under the auspices of the Permanent Advisory Council (PAC) of SProSIG. We will continue to work with ISCA to publish the conference proceedings.

Important Deadlines
Submission of Regular Papers: November 15, 2011
Notification of Acceptance (by email): January 20, 2012
Author's Registration Deadline: March 15, 2012
Conference date: May 22-25, 2012

Conference Topics
Paper submissions are invited on original and unpublished research addressing any aspects of the science and technology of prosody, including, but not limited to:
Syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of prosody
Language acquisition of prosody
Cross-linguistic studies of prosody
Phonology and phonetics of prosody
Psycholinguistic, cognitive, and neural correlates of prosody
Prosody in perception and production
Prosody in speech synthesis
Prosody in speech recognition and understanding
Prosody in computational linguistics
Prosody in audiovisual processing
Pathology of prosody and aids for the impaired
Meta-linguistic and para-linguistic communication
Prosodic corpus
Prosody of dialogues and spontaneous speech
Prosody of sign language
Voice quality, phonation, and vocal dynamics
Rhythm, tempo and intonation
Prosody in music