Research Bio

Lev Michael is an anthropological linguist with an areal commitment to South America – the world's most linguistically diverse region – and Amazonia in particular. His research focuses on documenting and describing the generally little-studied languages of this region, both for the benefit of the peoples that speak them, and to improve our scientific understanding of human linguistic diversity, and that of the history of the continent.

His community-oriented work includes training community members in linguistics, the collaborative development of pedagogical materials, language revitalization activities, and the development of dictionaries. The latter also feeds into his comparative and historical research on South American languages, which includes work on Arawakan, Tukanoan, Tupí-Guaraní, and Zaparoan language families, as well as research on language contact and areality. Much of this research seeks to use diachronic linguistics as a tool for illuminating the deep social and cultural history of the Indigenous societies of the continent.

His work in language documentation and description informs the collaborative development of community-oriented materials for language revitalization, as well as his research in phonological and grammatical typology, which seeks to enrich our understanding of the dimensions and range of human linguistic diversity.

He has carried out in situ fieldwork with speakers of  Asháninka, Ashéninka, Andoa, Aʔɨwa, Chamikuro, Iquito, Kakataibo, Máíhɨ̃ki, Matsigenka, Muniche, Nanti, Omagua, and Sápara.

Research Expertise and Interest

linguistic typology, Amazonian languages, anthropological linguistics, historical linguistics, language contact and areal typology, language documentation and description, lexicography, language revitalization