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Undergraduate Studies
We offer several programs of study that provide both a solid foundation in the discipline of linguistic analysis as well as the opportunity to pursue independent research. Undergraduates may pursue a Bachelor of Arts or minor in Linguistics.
Graduate Studies
Learn about our cross-disciplinary PhD program in Linguistics and our three Master's programs: Master of Arts in Linguistics, Master of Arts in Language Documentation and Description, and Master of Science in Computational Linguistics.
Our Research
Linguistics research at Rochester is dynamic, diverse, and deeply interdisciplinary. With active research labs and wide-ranging collaborations, we're pushing boundaries and asking big questions about how language works and why it matters.
Feature Story
Scott Grimm describes how language science helped the Supreme Court decide gun kits should be treated like firearms.
Sales of gun kits, also referred to as “ghost guns,” have surged in recent years—rising from 1,600 in 2017 to more than 19,000 in 2021—a nearly twelvefold increase, according to data cited by the Supreme Court of the United States. Because these kits were hard to trace, they made it possible for convicted felons, minors, and those with restraining orders—all of whom are prohibited from purchasing guns—to get their hands on working firearms.
Continue ReadingUpcoming Events
- Language Science Lecture Series: Laura Gwilliams
Laura Gwilliams, Stanford University
April 14 - Emerging dialect areas: Contact, change and variation in Swahili
Hannah Gibson, University of Essex
April 17 - Language Science Lecture Series: Eleonore Neufeld
Eleonore Neufeld, University of Massachusetts
April 21
What's Linguistics?
The field of linguistics explores the nature of languages, seeking to describe what human languages are like, how languages develop and change, and how people learn and use language. Unlike courses in a language, where the point is to gain an automatic, unconscious ability to use the language, courses in linguistics attempt to develop a fully explicit, scientific theory of how language works. Linguistics thus offers a unique combination of humanistic and scientific concerns.
Recent News
Featured Courses - Fall 2026
Check out some of our featured courses for the upcoming Fall 2026 semester. For a full and updated list of Linguistics courses and their descriptions, explore our course catalog.
LING 107 Language, Memory, and Landscape
Humans have thrived in diverse, often harsh environments all over the earth for many millennia by passing on important bodies of knowledge of landscape and climate across many generations. How does this work? In this course we will study the deep relationship between people, their environment and...
LING 205 Intro to Historical Linguistics
This course is designed to give an introduction to the principles of linguistic variation and change, and to examine their practical application in the interdisciplinary subfields of historical linguistics and historical sociolinguistics. Topics covered include diachrony and synchrony, genetic relations, the...
LING 215/415 Languages of Africa
About 2,000 of the world’s 7,000 languages are spoken in Africa. The diversity that characterizes these languages is exceptional, but little known to non-specialists. In this course, we will learn about the languages of Africa: the diversity of their linguistic structures (including famous features that are...
LING 237/437 Phonology
This course introduces students to the core principles and analytical tools of phonology—the study of how speech sounds are organized in human language. Through examination of diverse phonological patterns from a typologically broad set of languages, students will explore the most active and exciting...
LING 526 Morphological Theory
This course is an overview of advanced topics in morphology. The course first introduces students to the landscape of possible morphological theories and what different implications they hold for linguistic theory more broadly, since morphology interfaces with syntax, phonology, and semantics. The...
Center for Language Sciences
The Center for Language Sciences (CLS) is an organization at the University of Rochester that brings together faculty, postdocs, and graduate students who conduct research on any aspect of human language as a vehicle for active interdisciplinary work.
CLS fosters research and activities that reach across a very broad group of disciplines covering a wide research focus and range of interests. It's a continually evolving organization with a history of serving as a platform for training students and postdocs in interdisciplinary research and enhancing collaborations among members.
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Get in Touch
For more information about the Department of Linguistics, our programs, our research, or our courses, send us an email.