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Page Contents:

1. Media Submission Guidelines

2. Preparation of Problem Sets

3. The Manuscript

3.1 Manuscript Preparation
3.2 Titles and Headings
3.3. Numbered Examples, Rules, and Formulas
3.4 Glosses and Translations of Examples
3.5 Cited Forms
3.6 Notes
3.7 Italics
3.8 Punctuation
3.9 Citations in the Text
3.10 References

1. MEDIA SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• Use of the electronic format for publishing Linguistic Discovery allows us to post a variety of media, in addition to standard written articles. Such media may be submitted in conjunction with an article or as a stand-alone document.
• Media may be submitted digitally, or on tape or disc. Please state any recording program used, where applicable. Once accepted, we will take responsibility for digitizing material as necessary.
• As a general guideline, the submission and publication of recorded material should give full information about the recording. Beyond identifying the language(s) illustrated, this would normally include the date and place of recording, some identification of the speaker (age, gender, etc.) and the recorder, and the kind of equipment used to make the recording.

2. PREPARATION OF PROBLEM SETS

• In contrast to articles, problem sets will be posted as pdf files only: they will not be posted as HTML web pages. We encourage preparation of problem sets as Word documents. These may be submitted via electronic mail or on diskette.
• Formatting of problem sets is as varied as the sets themselves; however, two general rules must be followed:
  • Use Doulos SIL Unicode font for all linguistic characters. This font is freely distributed at: http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=DoulosSILfont
  • Refer to sections 3.3 and 3.4 for general instructions on formatting examples and glosses. Information on formatting references is provided in section 3.10.

3. THE MANUSCRIPT

• Articles are posted as HTML and PDF files; the latter require Adobe Acrobat Reader. We format the articles for both postings, but ask you to adhere to the following guidelines:
• Manuscripts should be submitted electronically whenever possible, via electronic mail or on a diskette. We especially encourage submissions via electronic mail. Please state the word processing program used and the operating system.
• All paper submissions should use paper of standard size, either 8.5x11 or A4. Print only on one side of the paper, fully double-spaced throughout. Use a 12 point font size. Margins should measure 1 inch (2.54 cm.) on all four sides of the paper.
• We follow the Linguistic Society of America in urging all linguists to be sensitive to the social implications of language choice and to seek wording free of discriminatory overtones. Contributors should follow the LSA Guidelines for nonsexist usage, published in the December LSA Bulletin.
• All manuscripts are reviewed by at least two referees. Our goal is to maintain a blind referee system.

3.1 MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

• Do not use any headers or footers other than page numbers.
• The paper should be written in the Times font.
• Use Doulos SIL Unicode font for all linguistic characters. This font is freely distributed at: http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=DoulosSILfont
• Be sure to use the Doulos SIL Unicode font; earlier versions differ and will not be read properly. Do not use any other fonts for linguistic characters: they will not be readable.
• Avoid using stylesheets and macros in the preparation of your manuscript.

3.2 TITLES AND HEADINGS

• Use only two levels of headings: 1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, but not 1.2.4.
• The first line of text after a section heading begins on the next line, flush left, as in:

1. INTRODUCTION
Current interest in the status ...

3.3 NUMBERED EXAMPLES, RULES, AND FORMULAS

Type each numbered item on a separate line with the number in parentheses:

In the body of the text, refer to the examples as (23), (24a), and so on.

3.4 GLOSSES AND TRANSLATIONS OF EXAMPLES

• Examples not in English must be translated or glossed as appropriate. Often, a word-for-word or morpheme-by-morpheme gloss together with a translation is necessary. Rather than using tab spacing, it is easiest for us if these are formatted as tables. (HTML does not read tabs!) We have found it easiest to initially write examples using tabs, and then convert to tables. Adjusting the alignment in the tables is actually far easier than with tabs if you are using Word 6.
• The gloss or translation should be placed on a new line below the example: Align word-for-word or morpheme-by-morpheme glosses of example phrases or sentences with the beginning of each original word, using the table formatting. The example will appear as follows:

• Example (16) is taken from Evenki, a Tungus language spoken in Siberia.) The following version reveals the underlying table formatting and fonts used:

Conventions for morpheme-by-morpheme glosses:

• Use a hyphen between morphs within words in the original, and a corresponding hyphen in the gloss.
• If one morph in the original corresponds to two or more elements in the gloss (cumulative exponence), separate the latter by a period, except for person marking:
        Gloss lexical roots in lowercase roman type.
        Gloss persons as 1, 2, 3, and 4.
        Gloss all other grammatical categories in small capitals.
• Abbreviate glosses for grammatical categories. List the abbreviations in a note.

3.5 CITED FORMS

• Cited forms are italicized. Enclose transcriptions either within (phonetic) square brackets or within (phonemic) slashes: the suffix [-ksan], the word /oron/. Do not italicize or underscore bracketed transcriptions.
• Use angle brackets for specific reference to graphemes: the letter < w >.
• Transliterate or transcribe all forms in any language not normally written with the Latin alphabet, including Greek. Use IPA symbols unless there is another standard system for the language. (Refer to Language 66.550-2 for a discussion of the use of IPA.)
• After the first occurrence of non-English forms, provide a gloss in single quotation marks: Buriat dobo 'hill'
  Note: No comma precedes the gloss and no comma follows unless necessary for other reasons:
  In Buriat the adjectives dobolig 'hilly' and torgolig 'silken' illustrate the use of the suffix -lig to derive adjectives from nouns (dobo 'hill' and torgo 'silk').

3.6 NOTES

• Number all notes to the body of the text consecutively throughout the manuscript.
• The note reference number in the body of the text is a raised numeral, not enclosed in parentheses.
• Place note numbers at the ends of sentences wherever possible, after all punctuation marks.

3.7 ITALICS

• Use italics for all cited linguistic forms and examples in the text. Do not use to mark common loanwords or technical terms: ad hoc, lenis fortis, etc.
• Use italics to mark a technical term at its first use or definition, or to give emphasis to a word or phrase in the text.

3.8 PUNCTUATION

• Use double quotation marks, except for quotes within quotes. Final formatting will use “smart” quotes.
• Use italics for linguistic material cited in the body of the text; see §3.5, §3.7. Format examples according to §3.4.
• Indent long quotations (more than about 40 words) without quotation marks.
• Do not hyphenate words containing prefixes unless a misreading will result; hyphenate if the stem begins with a capital letter: Proto-Altaic, non-Indo-European.
• Ellipsis in the original (cited) text is indicated by three dots, like . . . this. The author’s ellipsis is indicated by three dots enclosed in square brackets, like [. . .] this.
• Use prime notation (e.g. S', V'') rather than bar notation.

3.9 CITATIONS IN THE TEXT

• Within the text, give only a brief citation in parentheses consisting of the author's surname, the year of publication, and page number(s) where relevant: (Krauss 1992) or (Woodbury 1987:690-702).
• If a cited publication has more than two authors, use the last name of the first author, followed by et al.
• If the author’s name is part of the text, then use this form: Hale (1997:201) suggests ...
• Do not use notes for citations only.

3.10 REFERENCES

• References are placed at the end of the manuscript in a section labeled REFERENCES, using Times Roman throughout. (More complete information can be found at at http://www.lsadc.org/language/langstyl.html)
• Arrange the entries alphabetically by authors’ last names.
• Multiple works by the same author should be listed in ascending chronological order.
• Use suffixed letters a, b, c, etc. to distinguish more than one item published by a single author in the same year.
• If more than one article is cited from one book, list the book as a separate entry under the editor’s name, with cross-references to the book in the entries for each article.
• Do not replace given names with initials unless the person normally uses initials.
• Use a middle name or initial only if the author normally does so.
• Each entry should contain the following elements in the order and punctuation given: (first) author’s surname, given name(s) or initial(s); given name and surname of other authors. Year of publication. Full title and subtitle of the work.
  For a journal article: Full name of the journal and volume number (roman type). Inclusive page numbers for the entire article. For an article in a book: title of the book, ed. by [ full name(s) of editor(s)], inclusive page numbers. For books and monographs, the edition, volume or part number (if applicable) and series title (if any). Place of publication: Publisher.
• Some examples follow; see published articles for more examples:

Dorian, Nancy C. (ed.) 1989. Investigating obsolescence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hale, Ken. 1997. The Misumalpan causative construction. Essays on language function and language type: Dedicated to Talmy Givón, ed. by Joan Bybee, John Haiman, and Sandra A. Thomason, 199-216. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Ingouacka, Guy-Cyr and Eugene Shimamungu. 1994. The representation of time in Bantu: Lingala and Kinyarwanda system comparison. Revue quebecoise de linguistique 23/2.47-71

Krauss, Michael. 1992. The world’s languages in crisis. Language 68/1.4-10.

Michelson, Karin. 1990. The Oneida lexicon. Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (supplement) 16.73-84.

Mithun, Marianne. 1999. The languages of native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Woodbury, Anthony C. 1987. Meaningful phonological processes: A consideration of Central Alaskan Yupik Eskimo prosody. Language 63/4.685-740.

Wurm, Stephen A. 1996. The Taimyr peninsula Russian-based pidgin. Language contact in the Arctic: Northern pidgins and contact languages, ed. by Ernst Hakon Jahr and Ingvild Broch, 79-90. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

^[1] Our stylesheet is adapted from the stylesheet for Language, the journal of the Linguistic Society of America. It is available at http://www.lsadc.org/language/langstyl.html