Welcome!

The Department of Linguistics is a diverse and vibrant academic community dedicated to the scientific study of language in all its aspects. We offer degrees at the A.B., M.A., and Ph.D. level.

People communicating

What is linguistics?

Every human language is a system of knowledge and abilities that allows its speakers to communicate with one another. Linguistics is the study of these knowledge systems in all of their aspects. Linguists seek to understand the nature of human language, how languages develop and change, and how people acquire and use language. 

To learn more about linguistics and what you can do with a degree in linguistics, follow the link below.

Why study Linguistics?

Support Linguistics at UGA

Your donations to the Department of Linguistics will support research and travel opportunities for students and faculty and other initiatives to enhance students' education in linguistics. Please consider joining other friends and alumni who have shown their support by making a gift to our fund. We greatly appreciate your contributions to the success of our programs!  

EVERY DOLLAR CONTRIBUTED TO THE DEPARTMENT HAS A DIRECT IMPACT ON OUR STUDENTS AND FACULTY.

Our Graduate Program

Linguistics at the University of Georgia is interdisciplinary by nature. In addition to core faculty who have appointments in the Department of Linguistics, a large number of affiliated faculty members are housed in other departments. All faculty teach linguistics courses, mentor students, and conduct research in various subfields of linguistics. 

Our graduate program provides both a strong grounding in core areas of linguistics as well as the opportunity for specialization within the broad areas of

  • phonetics and phonology
  • syntax, semantics, and morphology
  • pragmatics and discourse analysis
  • computational and corpus linguistics
  • psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics
  • sociolinguistics and language variation
  • historical (Indo-European) linguistics
  • language acquisition

For additional information about the research/teaching interests of our faculty, see our Areas of Interest page.

View Graduate Program 

View Areas of Interest


Graduate Student Spotlight

Joshua McNeill

Ph.D. Candidate

Josh is a PhD candidate in sociolinguistics. His primary research interests are in sociolinguistics, particularly language variation in and between French, English, and Creole in Louisiana, on the internet, and in the media. Also, much more generally, he is interested in quantitative…

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