Wichmann's PhD dissertation, from the University of Copenhagen, treated the Azoyú variety of Tlapanec spoken in Guerrero, Mexico. He has written extensively about Mayan, Oto-Manguean and Mixe–Zoquean languages. He has done fieldwork on Mixe, Texistepec Popoluca and Tlapanec. Regarding Mixe–Zoquean, he has done comparative work resulting in the currently most accepted classification of the Mixe–Zoquean language family as well as a reconstruction of its vocabulary and grammar (Wichmann 1995). He also specializes in the study of Maya hieroglyphs — particularly the linguistic aspects of the deciphering of the Mayan script. Since 2007, Wichmann's work has increasingly focused on the development of quantitative methods in historical linguistics, including the development of the Automated Similarity Judgment Program.
Since its inception in 2011, Wichmann has been General Editor of Language Dynamics and Change.[1]
Brown, Cecil H., Søren Wichmann, and David Beck (2014). "Chitimacha: a Mesoamerican language in the Lower Mississippi Valley". International Journal of American Linguistics. 80 (4): 425–474. doi:10.1086/677911. S2CID145538166.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Brown, Cecil H., Eric W. Holman, and Søren Wichmann (2013). "Sound correspondences in the world's languages". Language. 89 (1): 4–29. doi:10.1353/lan.2013.0009. S2CID145758470.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Wichmann, Søren, Eric W. Holman, Taraka Rama, and Robert S. Walker (2011). "Correlates of reticulation in linguistic phylogenies". Language Dynamics and Change. 1 (2): 205–240. doi:10.1163/221058212x648072.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Brown, Cecil H., David Beck, Grzegorz Kondrak, James K. Watters, and Søren Wichmann (2011). "Totozoquean". International Journal of American Linguistics. 77 (2): 323–372. doi:10.1086/660972. S2CID224807468.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Wichmann, Søren, André Müller, and Viveka Velupillai (2010). "Homelands of the world's language families: A quantitative approach". Diachronica. 27 (2): 247–276. doi:10.1075/dia.27.2.05wic.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Holman, Eric W., Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Viveka Velupillai, André Müller, and Dik Bakker. 2008 (2008). "Explorations in automated language classification". Folia Linguistica. 42 (2): 331–354. doi:10.1515/FLIN.2008.331. S2CID82275473.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
Brown, Cecil H., Eric W. Holman, Søren Wichmann, and Viveka Velupillai (2008). "Automated classification of the world's languages: A description of the method and preliminary results". STUF - Language Typology and Universals. 61 (4): 285–308. doi:10.1524/stuf.2008.0026. S2CID120424937.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Schulze, Christian, Dietrich Stauffer, and Søren Wichmann (2008). "Birth, survival and death of languages by Monte Carlo simulation". Communications in Computational Physics. 3 (2): 271–294.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Wichmann, Søren & Arpiar Saunders (2007). "How to use typological features in historical linguistic research". Diachronica. 24 (2): 373–404. doi:10.1075/dia.24.2.06wic.
Holman, Eric W., Christian Schulze, Dietrich Stauffer, and Søren Wichmann (2007). "On the relation between structural diversity and geographical distance among languages: observations and computer simulations". Linguistic Typology. 11 (2): 395–423. arXiv:physics/0607031. doi:10.1515/lingty.2007.027. S2CID8946631.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Wichmann, Søren (2006). "Mayan historical linguistics and epigraphy: a new synthesis". Annual Review of Anthropology. 35: 279–294. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.35.081705.123257.