Department of Linguistics

Students Studying with Laptops in Alfiero Cente on North Campus.

It is almost impossible to overstate the importance of language to individuals and society. The Department of Linguistics explores this complex relationship by asking questions about acquisition, production, comprehension and evolution. Our students receive comprehensive training from internationally-recognized faculty in a variety of fascinating disciplines and foreign languages.

Experiential Learning

Our department’s experiential learning opportunities provide students with the chance to deepen their understanding of the world beyond the classroom.

  • Explore what makes you curious through a directed or independent study course
  • Build real-world language teaching experience in a Buffalo public school or at a public service agency
  • Spend time interacting with other cultures, languages and linguistic styles by studying abroad

Career-Focused

Our undergraduate alumni often pursue graduate work within theoretical and applied linguistics, as well as law, medicine and speech and hearing science. Many of our graduates spend one or several years teaching English overseas, or go on to successful careers in teaching, publishing, literacy development, marketing, public service or language technology.

Degrees

  • BA in Linguistics (eight concentrations)
  • BA in German
  • MA in Linguistics
  • MS in Computational Linguistics
  • PhD in Linguistics

Minors

  • Minor in Linguistics
  • Minor in Chinese
  • Minor in German
  • Minor in Japanese
  • Minor in Korean