Undergraduate Program

Introduction to the Major

Our undergraduate curriculum introduces students to the systematic study of language structure, how people acquire language and use it in social contexts, how language varies and how it changes over time. Although Linguistics is not the same as the study of many languages, our coursework exposes students to data from many languages and offers students many opportunities to make use of their knowledge of a variety of languages.

After a few required foundational courses, students may tailor their programs of study according to their interests, choosing from courses in the areas of formal linguistic theory, computational and corpus linguistics, language acquisition, sociolinguistics and language variation, psycholinguistics, and historical Indo-European linguistics. We also offer courses in quantitative and experimental research methods, which are broadly applicable to different fields. In all, majors will take a total of 8 upper-level Linguistics courses to earn their degree.

Our program is interdisciplinary in nature. In addition to the core faculty who are housed in the Department of Linguistics, we have a large number of faculty housed in other departments who are specialists in linguistics. Many of our courses are cross-listed with other departments and will also earn you credit in areas such as English, Spanish, French, German, Russian/Slavic, Cognitive Science, Comparative Literature, Communication Sciences and Disorders, or Language and Literacy Education, making it easy to combine Linguistics with another major.

Click here for a full description of degree requirements

Declaring a Major or Minor in Linguistics

Students can declare a major or minor in Linguistics in Athena. 

Career Opportunities

Majoring in linguistics gives students valuable intellectual skills such as analytical reasoning, critical thinking, argumentation, and clarity of expression. More specifically, this means that students will have gained the ability to make insightful observations, formulate testable hypotheses, generate predictions, make arguments, draw conclusions, and communicate findings to a wider audience, skills which can be used in a wide variety of professions. For more information on career opportunities, click on the link below.

Career opportunities for linguists

We also offer research opportunities for undergraduate students including but not limited to the SPARK award for undergraduate research in linguistics. Thanks to a generous endowment created by Michael H. and Nancy E. Scarbrough, the Department of Linguistics is able to offer funding to support undergraduate research projects. To find more information about the SPARK award or to apply, please go to the SPARK home page linked here.

Linguistics majors are also well-equipped for a variety of graduate-level and professional programs; e.g., in Linguistics or Applied Linguistics and TESOL; in related fields such as Cognitive Science, Artificial Intelligence, or Communication Sciences and Disorders; or in law school or other programs. Many of our students gain admission to graduate programs at UGA and at other prestigious universities across the country. Links to some popular UGA programs are given below:

Linguistics

Artificial Intelligence

Communication Science and Disorders

Language and Literacy Education

(Updated: 10/01/24)