My research is focused on the documentation, description and comparison of the languages of South America. I am also interested in the typology and diachrony of grammatical relations and other related argument marking phenomena. I am currently involved in a number of initiatives to develop multimedia dictionaries with communities that speak endangered languages in southwestern Amazonia. My other ongoing research involves historical linguistics, such as computational phylogenetic methods, the comparative reconstruction of grammar and lexicon, and the development of  cross-linguistic databases. I am a co-director of the UNM Language Documentation Lab (https://www.unm.edu/~langdoc/).

Educational history:

Ph.D. Linguistics, Radboud University Nijmegen, 2014; Dissertation: Argument marking patterns in South American languages; Promotor: Pieter Muysken 

M.A. Linguistics, University of Montana, 2008

B.A. Anthropology, University of Montana, 2007

Selected publications:

Birchall, J.,  Inman, D., and Oro Waram Xiyein, M. (2025). Verbal number in Wari'. International Journal of American Linguistics, 91(3): 373-392. https://doi.org/10.1086/735625.

Birchall, J., Chyc, P., Leigue Sae, J. B., Cujubim, M., and Costa, C. N. d. (2023). Diccionario Moré‐Kuyubim ‐ Español,  Español ‐ Moré‐Kuyubim: Alfabético y temático. Rio de Janeiro: Museu do Índio/FUNAI. Multimedia version available at: https://japiim.museudoindio.gov.br/dic/morekuyubim

Passmore, S., Barth, W., Greenhill, S., Quinn, K.,  Sheard, C., Argyriou, P., Birchall, J., Bowern, C.,  Calladine, J.,  Deb, A.,  Diederen, A.,   Metsäranta, N. P.,  Araujo, L. H.,  Hickey-Hall, J.,  Honkola, T.,  Mitchell, A., Poole, L.,  Rácz, P., Roberts, S.,  Ross, R.,   Thomas-Colquhoun, E.,  Evans, N., and  Jordan, F. (2023). Kinbank: A global database of kinship terminology. PLoS ONE 18(5): e0283218. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0283218.

Birchall, J. (2023). Lexicografía y elaboración de diccionarios. In P. Arandia (ed.) Introducción a la Lingüística: Curso para investigadores de lenguas indígenas de Bolivia, p. 141-159. Cochabamba: Página y Signos.

Carvalho, F. and Birchall, J. (2023). A comparative reconstruction of Proto-Tupi-Guarani kinship terminology. Línguas Indígenas Americanas (LIAMES), 22: 1-49. https://doi.org/10.20396/liames.v22i00.8666489.

van der Voort, H., and Birchall, J. (2023). Aikanã. In P. Epps and L. Michael (eds.), Amazonian Languages: An international handbook. Language isolates, Volume 1: Aikanã to Kandozi-Shapra, p. 1-64. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110419405-001

Birchall, J.  and Oro Win Cabixi, O. (2021). Passos na retomada da língua do povo Oro Win. In P. G.  Tondineli (ed.), (Re)vitalizar línguas minorizadas e/ou ameaçadas: teorias, metodologias, pesquisas e experiências, p. 69-82. Porto Velho: EDUFRO.

Birchall, J. (2018). Historical change in reported speech constructions in the Chapacuran family. Journal of Historical Linguistics, 8(1): 7-30.

Birchall, J., Dunn, M. and Greenhill, S. J. (2016). A combined comparative and phylogenetic analysis of the Chapacuran language family. International Journal of American Linguistics, 82(3): 255-284.

Representative courses:

LING 322/522: Grammatical Analysis
LING 417/517: Typology and Universals
LING 425/525: Semantic Analysis
LING 446/546: Introduction to Language Change
LING 490/590: Data Science and Data Curation