Profile
My primary research focus is the creation and application of innovative approaches to solve difficult problems in historical linguistics.
I also work to educate the public about Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and historical linguistics through constructed languages and other forms of outreach.
Positions
- Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of Kentucky, 2017-present
- Assistant Professor of Linguistics, University of Kentucky, 2014-2017
- Lecturer of Linguistics, University of Kentucky, 2011-2014
Selected Publications
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Z. Khoshsirat and A. M. Byrd. “The Indo-Iranian labial-enlarged causative suffix: Indic -(ā)páya-, Eastern Iranian *-(ā)u̯ai̯a-, and Proto-Caspian *-āwēn-” Indo-European Linguistics 11: 1–32 (2023).
Journal
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A. Vinogradov, A. M. Byrd, and Brent Harrison. “Mistake Captioning: A Machine Learning Approach for Detecting Mistakes And Generating Instructive Feedback.”
Proceedings of Recent Advances in Natural Language Processing, September 1-3, 2021, 1455-1462 (2021).
Teaching
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A. M. Byrd and B.R. Byrd. “Teaching Proto-Indo-European as a Constructed Language.”
Language Invention in Linguistics Pedagogy, 186–207. (2020).
Teaching
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The Indo-European Syllable. Leiden: Brill (2015).
Full list: see Research.
Recent Grants & Awards
- CURATE award, $5,000 — DERBi PIE (2025).
- NEH Digital Humanities Advancement Grant (with Danny Law), $75,000 — DERBi PIE prototype (2024).
- RCASP (with Allison Burkette), $5,000 — OCR for linguistic texts (2024).
- Broadening Our Funded Research Base in A&S, $20,000 — DERBi PIE (2023).
Teaching
Regular courses include:
- An Immersive Introduction to Proto-Indo-European
- Phonological Analysis
- How to Create Your Own Language
- Writing Systems
Details, past syllabi, and advising: Teaching page.