UNM linguistics professor’s project named finalist in international competition

A collaborative research project has received national recognition in Brazil for its efforts to preserve endangered Indigenous languages.

The project is a dictionary platform called Dicionários Multimídia para Línguas Indígenas, which has recently been recognized as a finalist for Banco de Brasil's 13th Social Technology Award, with the winners to be announced in May. The award is an annual program that identifies and acknowledges creative and innovative social development projects that have demonstrated positive social impact in communities.

As a finalist, the team has received an initial award of $50K BRL, or about $10,000 USD, to help continue developing the Android app and make it easier to host apps on the Google Play Store. If they are a winner, they will receive a $500 BRL prize in May.

The project is led by University of New Mexico linguistics assistant professor Joshua Birchall and his Brazilian partner, Ana Vilacy Galucio.

Alongside the lead researchers, UNM doctoral student Bruno Pinto Silva and UNM linguistics alumnus Uki Lucero have also played key roles in supporting the project. Additionally, the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi hosts the platform digitally to increase access to information. Museu Paraense is an institute specializing in the Amazon, based in Belém, Brazil, right in the heart of the Rainforest.

"It's really exciting to see this project receive recognition internationally," said Birchall. "It started very humbly as conversations about the growing need for Amazonian communities wanting to revive learning and ensure their traditional languages are passed on to each new generation within their communities before there is no one left who speaks the languages."

Currently, the team has documented seven endangered Amazonian languages: Kanoé, Oro Win, Puruborá, Sakurabiat, Salamãi, Wanyam and Lugares sagrados dos Medzeniakonai. Silva was the lead researcher working on documenting the Salamãi dictionary, Lucero worked heavily on the Wanyam dictionary, and Birchall created the Oro Win dictionary together with two Oro Win researchers.

Each dictionary combines audio pronunciation recordings, images, written text, and, in some cases, video. This format allows the user to hear the word's pronunciation, understand the cultural context, and access language resources that traditional print dictionaries cannot provide.

"We are currently working in Rondônia," said Birchall. "The state has 26 languages from seven different language families, and one third of them have fewer than 10 speakers."

Birchall explained that once the project took off and other communities learned about the team's capabilities, the number of requests increased, leading to more Indigenous communities in the Amazon who want to document their languages before it's too late.

"Each community has different goals," he said. "Our goal is to support them in whatever direction they choose. It is our responsibility as scientists to share our skills to help others live and thrive."

Birchall's work with Amazonian Indigenous communities began in the southwestern Amazon region of Brazil more than a decade ago, around 2009, during his graduate research days. Through repeated visits, he spoke with many community elders and Brazilian university colleagues and has built trust and enduring partnerships over time.

In addition to building dictionaries one conversation at a time, Birchall is also the co-director of UNM's Language Documentation Lab, where he works with two linguistic colleagues, Rosa Vallejos-Yopán and Christian Koops, along with several linguistic students.

The lab focuses on the languages indigenous to the Americas and primarily examines how language structures interact with language use.

To learn more about Birchall's work, visit his UNM faculty webpage.