 Søren Wichmann
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig
Tel.: +49 (341) 3550 - 327
Fax: +49 (341) 3550 - 333
 Email: wichmann eva.mpg.de
Personal Homepage: http://email.eva.mpg.de/~wichmann/
Søren Wichmann studied at University of Copenhagen, where he finished a Ph.D in 1996 on the typologically oriented description of the Otomanguean language Tlapanec (southern Mexico). In the past he has held appointments at University of Copenhagen, Danish Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, and Universidad de Sonora, and he is currently simultaneously a postdoctoral fellow at Leiden University and MPI-EVA (the latter since 2003). His research focuses on various aspects of historical linguistics (e.g., lexical borrowing patterns, script interpretation, quantitative methods, simulation methodologies), on the documentation of different Mesoamerican languages, and on the typology of case marking.
Language expertise:
Tlapanec, Ch’orti’ and other Mayan languages, Nahuatl, Texistepec Popoluca and other Mixe-Zoquean languages
Research Projects:
Marked Nominative/Absolutive Case Systems
In most languages, an accusative case will be longer than a nominative case. This is a well-known cross-linguistic generalization. In contrast, there are a few languages in which the nominative case is marked relative to the accusative. This project investigates these exceptional cases to learn more about the possibilities of human languages. [more]
Computational and quantitative methods in historical linguistics
In applying computational and statistical methods to large lexical and typological dataset and supplementing empirical data with computer simulations, we try to address questions SUCH AS: How fast do different elements of language change? How can we classify all of the world's languages consistently? How did the present distribution of languages come about? [more]
Maya writing and historical linguistics
Through comparative reconstruction and epigraphic work we try to track the development of Lowland Maya languages in the context of the cultural evolution of the area. The project also involves the build-up of a Pan-Chronic Mayan Dictionary containing not only cognate sets and reconstructions but also, ideally, all attested lexemes throughout the Mayan languages. [more]
Documentation of the Tlapanec language
Since 1991 I have been describing different aspects of the grammar of the Otomanguean language Tlapanec as spoken in Azoyú (Guerrero, southern Mexico). It is a complicated tonal language with unusual features of reference-tracking, case marking, and inflectional morphology. [more]
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