Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics

Our students become deft critical thinkers who understand how human language is learned and understood and shapes cultural practices; they succeed in a range of careers that include speech language pathology, software engineering, computer research science and teaching.

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language—its structure and diversity, how it’s learned and understood, and how it shapes cultural practices. As a linguistics major you’ll study all aspects of human language, from the way humans form sounds and gestures to the use of language as a form of group identity. Students in the program gain valuable insight into the fundamental design of language and how this knowledge can be applied to a variety of professions.

  • Learn how people use language to transmit their ideas and feelings
  • Explore ancient languages to help them survive
  • Gain an interdisciplinary education, from computational to sociocultural linguistics

Study one of our major concentrations: language and cognition, computational linguistics, sociocultural, anthropological and interactional linguistics

Learn from award-winning faculty, including fellows of the American Council of Learned Societies, the Center for Linguistic Typology and the Association for Computational Linguistics

Gain hands-on experience in elementary schools and English learning classes through our literacy practicum

Be successful.

Be prepared to meet the needs of our 21st-century society by applying your knowledge of linguistics to a variety of careers.

 
$58,600

Median salary of CU Boulder linguistics students 1–5 years after graduation

 

Speech language pathologist, software engineer, computer research scientist, instructor and tutor are common job opportunities for graduates

 

Work for local, state and federal resource agencies, or in K–12 education, software development, and health care

Academic Plan & Requirements

As a linguistics major, you must fulfill the following requirements:

  • Complete a total of 32 credit hours in linguistics and specified related areas, at least 18 of which must be upper-division courses.
  • Complete at least 5 credit hours of a language other than English. The 5 credit hours must be at the 3000 level or above for widely taught languages (French, German, Latin, Spanish) as well as Greek, or at the 2000 level or above for less widely taught languages (Arabic, American Sign Language, Chinese, Farsi, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish).

Students can study with our general linguistics major or choose from our four optional tracks:

  • Computational Linguistics
  • Language and Cognition
  • Sociocultural, Anthropological and Interactional Linguistic
  • Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

Additional degree options for linguistic students include: 

Community & Involvement

We offer students many opportunities to network with peers and faculty, and get the most out of their undergraduate experience.

Be inspired.

The linguistics department has an extensive list of alumni who have worked in a variety of fields across the globe.

Some alumni of the program include:

Susan W. Brown

(PhD'10)
A lecturer and research associate in natural language processing, computational semantics, lexical resources and ontologies at CU Boulder

Georgia Zellou

(PhD'12)
An assistant professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Davis

Will Styler

(BA/MA'08)
An assistant teaching professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, San Diego, specializing in computational and quantitative approaches to language

Jennifer Campbell

(MA'13)
A lecturer in linguistics and the Program for Writing and Rhetoric at CU Boulder

Sarah Hoffman

(BA in linguistics & Spanish, '03)
Director of academic and persistence initiatives at the University of Denver

News & Stories

College of Arts & Sciences magazine cover