Papers by Joshua Birchall
The story of Fox is a myth told by different peoples of the southwestern Amazon, including the Ai... more The story of Fox is a myth told by different peoples of the southwestern Amazon, including the Aikanã. This dataset contains the mediafiles. A glossed version with annotations is found in On this and other worlds -- Voices from Amazonia<br> Edited by Kristine Stenzel and Bruna Franchetto
Cite the source of the dataset as: Birchall J, Dunn M, & Greenhill SJ. 2016. A Combined Comparati... more Cite the source of the dataset as: Birchall J, Dunn M, & Greenhill SJ. 2016. A Combined Comparative and Phylogenetic Analysis of the Chapacuran Language Family. International Journal of American Linguistics 82(3). 255–284.
LIAMES (Línguas Indígenas Americanas), 2022
This paper proposes a reconstruction of the kinship terminology system of Proto-Tupi-Guarani (PTG... more This paper proposes a reconstruction of the kinship terminology system of Proto-Tupi-Guarani (PTG). The focus of the contribution lies in presenting a solid core of cognate sets and argumentation for the reconstruction of formal and semantic aspects for each relevant etymon. The etymologies are preceded by a review of our current understanding of PTG kinship terms and by a selective overview of those aspects of PTG structure that will play out more importantly in the proposed etyma. Finally, we end by considering a few open issues in the reconstruction of the PTG kinship system, many of which are raised here for the first time, and by addressing its characteristics in relation to traditional typologies of these terminology systems.
(Re)vitalizar línguas minorizadas e/ou ameaçadas: teorias, metodologias, pesquisas e experiências, 2021
Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas
International Journal of American Linguistics, 2016
raDBouD university niJMegen uppsala university Museu paraense eMílio goelDi Max planck institute ... more raDBouD university niJMegen uppsala university Museu paraense eMílio goelDi Max planck institute for psycholinguistics siMon J. greenhill arc centre of excellence for the DynaMics of language australian national university Max planck institute for the science of huMan history The Chapacuran language family, with three extant members and nine historically attested lects, has yet to be classified following modern standards in historical linguistics. This paper presents an internal classification of these languages by combining both the traditional comparative method (CM) and Bayesian phylogenetic inference (BPI). We identify multiple systematic sound correspondences and 285 cognate sets of basic vocabulary using the available documentation. These allow us to reconstruct a large portion of the Proto-Chapacuran phonemic inventory and identify tentative major subgroupings. The cognate sets form the input for the BPI analysis, which uses a stochastic Continuous-Time Markov Chain to model the change of these cognate sets over time. We test various models of lexical substitution and evolutionary clocks, and use ethnohistorical information and data collection dates to calibrate the resulting trees. The CM and BPI analyses produce largely congruent results, suggesting a division of the family into three different clades.
STUF - Language Typology and Universals, 2013
This paper presents an analysis of the only remaining documentation of the Rokorona language, a c... more This paper presents an analysis of the only remaining documentation of the Rokorona language, a collection of three prayers published in Teza (1868). First, a survey of the various mentions of Rokorona in the ethno-historical literature is presented, allowing for new insights into the original homeland of these people. Then, a number of phonological and grammatical features of the language are identified based on the texts. These features show that Rokorona displays a number of grammatical properties typical of Chapacuran languages, and when combined with the available lexical data, allow for the language to be definitively classified as such.
Origins, Development, Typology, 2014
Journal of Historical Linguistics, 2018
The reported speech construction found in the Chapacuran language family of South America has und... more The reported speech construction found in the Chapacuran language family of South America has undergone a number of changes in the individual languages, such that its uses extend beyond that of merely reporting speech. In many languages, it is used to express the inner states of the reported speaker, and in some cases it is used to express imperfectivity and causation. This paper argues that the future construction in Moré is a further development of the reported speech construction, one that has been reanalyzed as a basic main clause type. The morphosyntactic properties of the source construction explains the divergent inflectional forms, the loss of object indexation, and the innovation of an object case marker in the future construction. This paper provides new insights into the diachronic pathways that can lead to innovative future constructions as well as the origins of a tense-based split in case marking in Moré.
Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Ciências Humanas, 2019
Abstract: This study explores the kinship terminology of Proto-Tupí-Guaraní (PTG) through an inte... more Abstract: This study explores the kinship terminology of Proto-Tupí-Guaraní (PTG) through an interdisciplinary perspective that draws on ethnology, historical linguistics, and the ethnography of Tupi-Guaranian peoples. Inferences about cultural prehistory are made through phylogenetic comparative methods, a suite of computational tools for exploring evolutionary change in related populations, applied to a dataset of kinship terms from 24 Tupi-Guaranian languages. The study outlines the coding procedure for typological data, along with the parameters, inputs, and assumptions of the evolutionary models. Parsimony-based ancestral state inference is used to reconstruct a number of typological features of the kinship system of PTG, such as fusion and bifurcation in the first ascending generation (+1), relative age and sex-based distinctions in sibling terminology, and terminological equation between siblings and parallel cousins. The current state of reconstruction of the linguistic forms for kinship terms in PTG is reviewed, and these forms are mapped onto the system inferred through comparative analysis. This proof-of-concept study demonstrates the utility of phylogenetic analysis for inferring kinship structures in ancestral language communities.
Resumo: Este estudo explora o sistema de terminologia de parentesco da língua Proto-Tupí-Guaraní (PTG) a partir de uma perspectiva interdisciplinar, que soma contribuições da Etnologia, da Linguística Histórica e dos trabalhos etnográficos realizados com povos Tupí-Guaraní. Fazem-se inferências sobre pré-história cultural utilizando métodos filogenéticos comparativos, um conjunto de ferramentas computacionais para explorar mudanças evolutivas em populações relacionadas, aplicados a um banco de dados de termos de parentesco em 24 línguas Tupí-Guaraní. Discute-se a amostra usada no estudo, os procedimentos de codificação adotados para dados tipológicos e os componentes, valores iniciais e premissas do modelo evolutivo. A análise de reconstrução de estados ancestrais baseada no critério de máxima parcimônia reconstrói vários traços tipológicos do sistema de parentesco do PTG, como: fusão e bifurcação na primeira geração ascendente (+1); distinções na terminologia de irmãos baseadas na idade relativa e no sexo do ego; e equação terminológica entre irmãos e primos paralelos. O estudo avalia o estado atual da reconstrução de formas linguísticas para termos de parentesco em PTG e mapeia estas formas no sistema inferido por análise comparativa. Este estudo de comprovação de conceito demonstra a utilidade de análise filogenética para inferir estruturas de sistemas de parentesco em comunidades linguísticas ancestrais. Palavras-chave: Parentesco. Etnologia indígena. Linguística histórica. Filogenética computacional. Tupí-Guaraní.
On this and other worlds: Voices from Amazonia, 2017
An interlinear glossed text of the Aikanã traditional narrative Eruerazu kyã'apa'i 'The story of ... more An interlinear glossed text of the Aikanã traditional narrative Eruerazu kyã'apa'i 'The story of Fox'.
International Journal of American Linguistics, 2016
The Chapacuran language family, with three extant members and nine historically attested lects, h... more The Chapacuran language family, with three extant members and nine historically attested lects, has yet to be classified following modern standards in historical linguistics. This paper presents an internal classification of these languages by combining both the traditional comparative method (CM) and Bayesian phylogenetic inference (BPI). We identify multiple systematic sound correspondences and 285 cognate sets of basic vocabulary using the available documentation. These allow us to reconstruct a large portion of the Proto-Chapacuran phonemic inventory and identify tentative major subgroupings. The cognate sets form the input for the BPI analysis, which uses a stochastic Continuous-Time Markov Chain to model the change of these cognate sets over time. We test various models of lexical substitution and evolutionary clocks, and use ethnohistorical information and data collection dates to calibrate the resulting trees. The CM and BPI analyses produce largely congruent results, suggesting a division of the family into three different clades.
Download available at: https://repository.ubn.ru.nl//handle/2066/166431
In this paper we present the first results of the application of computational methods, inspired ... more In this paper we present the first results of the application of computational methods, inspired by the ideas in McMahon &
McMahon (2005), to a dataset collected from languages of every branch of the Tupian family (including all living non-Tupí-
Guaraní languages) in order to produce a classification of the family based on lexical distance. We used both a Swadesh list
(with historically stabler terms) and a list of animal and plant names for results comparison. In addition, we also selected
more (HiHi) and less (LoLo) stable terms from the Swadesh list to form sublists for indepedent treatment. We compared
the resulting NeighborNet networks and neighbor-joining cladograms and drew conclusions about their significance for
the current understanding of the classification of Tupian languages. One important result is the lack of support for the
currently discussed idea of an Eastern-Western division within Tupí.
This paper explores the diachrony of the verbal person marking system across the large and struct... more This paper explores the diachrony of the verbal person marking system across the large and structurally diverse Tupian
language family. I argue that the historical development of these different patterns are best informed by analyzing their
synchronic distributions with regard to the current evolutionary hypotheses on the family. I apply a parsimony reconstruction
model across the topology of two different classifications and compare the results with what is known from traditional
historical linguistic work. This study is able to provide support for previous claims about the family and also generates a
number of additional hypotheses about the intermediate stages of development of these patterns.
Incremento de Valencia en las Lenguas Amazónicas, 2014
This article explores the verb + ‘give’ benefactive construction in two closely related Chapacura... more This article explores the verb + ‘give’ benefactive construction in two closely related Chapacuran languages, Wari’ and Oro Win. The first section presents an overview of the predicate structure in these languages, focusing on verbal modifiers, transitivity and argument encoding strategies. Then, the major types of serial verb constructions in these languages are presented. The following section examines the valencychanging effects of the benefactive construction as well as other properties of these complex predicates such as argument types and intonational properties. The final sections use both language-internal data and cross linguistic tendencies to explain the development of such constructions diachronically.
This paper presents an analysis of the only remaining documentation of the Rokorona language, a c... more This paper presents an analysis of the only remaining documentation of the Rokorona language, a collection of three prayers published in Teza (1868). First, a survey of the various mentions of Rokorona in the ethno-historical literature is presented, allowing for new insights into the original homeland of these people. Then, a number of phono-logical and grammatical features of the language are identified based on the texts. These features show that Rokorona displays a number of grammatical properties typical of Chapacuran languages, and when combined with the available lexical data, allow for the language to be definitively classified as such.
Proceedings by Joshua Birchall
Recent phylogenetic studies in historical linguistics have focused on lexical data. However, the ... more Recent phylogenetic studies in historical linguistics have focused on lexical data. However, the way that such data are coded into characters for phylogenetic analysis has been approached in different ways, without investigating how coding methods may affect the results. In this paper, we compare three different coding methods for lexical data (multistate meaning-based characters, binary root-meaning characters, and binary cognate characters) in a Bayesian framework, using data from the Tupí-Guaraní and Chapacuran language families as case studies. We show that, contrary to prior expectations, different coding methods can have a significant impact on the topology of the resulting trees.
Talks by Joshua Birchall
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Papers by Joshua Birchall
Resumo: Este estudo explora o sistema de terminologia de parentesco da língua Proto-Tupí-Guaraní (PTG) a partir de uma perspectiva interdisciplinar, que soma contribuições da Etnologia, da Linguística Histórica e dos trabalhos etnográficos realizados com povos Tupí-Guaraní. Fazem-se inferências sobre pré-história cultural utilizando métodos filogenéticos comparativos, um conjunto de ferramentas computacionais para explorar mudanças evolutivas em populações relacionadas, aplicados a um banco de dados de termos de parentesco em 24 línguas Tupí-Guaraní. Discute-se a amostra usada no estudo, os procedimentos de codificação adotados para dados tipológicos e os componentes, valores iniciais e premissas do modelo evolutivo. A análise de reconstrução de estados ancestrais baseada no critério de máxima parcimônia reconstrói vários traços tipológicos do sistema de parentesco do PTG, como: fusão e bifurcação na primeira geração ascendente (+1); distinções na terminologia de irmãos baseadas na idade relativa e no sexo do ego; e equação terminológica entre irmãos e primos paralelos. O estudo avalia o estado atual da reconstrução de formas linguísticas para termos de parentesco em PTG e mapeia estas formas no sistema inferido por análise comparativa. Este estudo de comprovação de conceito demonstra a utilidade de análise filogenética para inferir estruturas de sistemas de parentesco em comunidades linguísticas ancestrais. Palavras-chave: Parentesco. Etnologia indígena. Linguística histórica. Filogenética computacional. Tupí-Guaraní.
Download available at: https://repository.ubn.ru.nl//handle/2066/166431
McMahon (2005), to a dataset collected from languages of every branch of the Tupian family (including all living non-Tupí-
Guaraní languages) in order to produce a classification of the family based on lexical distance. We used both a Swadesh list
(with historically stabler terms) and a list of animal and plant names for results comparison. In addition, we also selected
more (HiHi) and less (LoLo) stable terms from the Swadesh list to form sublists for indepedent treatment. We compared
the resulting NeighborNet networks and neighbor-joining cladograms and drew conclusions about their significance for
the current understanding of the classification of Tupian languages. One important result is the lack of support for the
currently discussed idea of an Eastern-Western division within Tupí.
language family. I argue that the historical development of these different patterns are best informed by analyzing their
synchronic distributions with regard to the current evolutionary hypotheses on the family. I apply a parsimony reconstruction
model across the topology of two different classifications and compare the results with what is known from traditional
historical linguistic work. This study is able to provide support for previous claims about the family and also generates a
number of additional hypotheses about the intermediate stages of development of these patterns.
Proceedings by Joshua Birchall
Talks by Joshua Birchall
Resumo: Este estudo explora o sistema de terminologia de parentesco da língua Proto-Tupí-Guaraní (PTG) a partir de uma perspectiva interdisciplinar, que soma contribuições da Etnologia, da Linguística Histórica e dos trabalhos etnográficos realizados com povos Tupí-Guaraní. Fazem-se inferências sobre pré-história cultural utilizando métodos filogenéticos comparativos, um conjunto de ferramentas computacionais para explorar mudanças evolutivas em populações relacionadas, aplicados a um banco de dados de termos de parentesco em 24 línguas Tupí-Guaraní. Discute-se a amostra usada no estudo, os procedimentos de codificação adotados para dados tipológicos e os componentes, valores iniciais e premissas do modelo evolutivo. A análise de reconstrução de estados ancestrais baseada no critério de máxima parcimônia reconstrói vários traços tipológicos do sistema de parentesco do PTG, como: fusão e bifurcação na primeira geração ascendente (+1); distinções na terminologia de irmãos baseadas na idade relativa e no sexo do ego; e equação terminológica entre irmãos e primos paralelos. O estudo avalia o estado atual da reconstrução de formas linguísticas para termos de parentesco em PTG e mapeia estas formas no sistema inferido por análise comparativa. Este estudo de comprovação de conceito demonstra a utilidade de análise filogenética para inferir estruturas de sistemas de parentesco em comunidades linguísticas ancestrais. Palavras-chave: Parentesco. Etnologia indígena. Linguística histórica. Filogenética computacional. Tupí-Guaraní.
Download available at: https://repository.ubn.ru.nl//handle/2066/166431
McMahon (2005), to a dataset collected from languages of every branch of the Tupian family (including all living non-Tupí-
Guaraní languages) in order to produce a classification of the family based on lexical distance. We used both a Swadesh list
(with historically stabler terms) and a list of animal and plant names for results comparison. In addition, we also selected
more (HiHi) and less (LoLo) stable terms from the Swadesh list to form sublists for indepedent treatment. We compared
the resulting NeighborNet networks and neighbor-joining cladograms and drew conclusions about their significance for
the current understanding of the classification of Tupian languages. One important result is the lack of support for the
currently discussed idea of an Eastern-Western division within Tupí.
language family. I argue that the historical development of these different patterns are best informed by analyzing their
synchronic distributions with regard to the current evolutionary hypotheses on the family. I apply a parsimony reconstruction
model across the topology of two different classifications and compare the results with what is known from traditional
historical linguistic work. This study is able to provide support for previous claims about the family and also generates a
number of additional hypotheses about the intermediate stages of development of these patterns.