Minor in Linguistics

Our students become accomplished scholars of human language, its structure and diversity, how it is learned and understood, and how it shapes cultural practices. They enjoy careers in government, K–12 education, software development and health care.

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language and its structure and diversity, how it’s learned and understood, and how it shapes cultural practices. Students learn to analyze language, thereby improving the quality of their writing and argumentation. A minor in linguistics pairs well with the study of modern languages, classics, psychology, or speech, hearing and language science. 

  • Learn how people use language to transmit their ideas and feelings
  • Explore how language affects culture and history 
  • Complement your undergraduate studies with a minor

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.

A minor in linguistics prepares you for a variety of careers in our information society.

 

Broaden your employment possibilities with additional knowledge and skills gained from a minor

 

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

 

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

Academic Plan & Requirements

To earn a minor in linguistics, students must complete a minimum of 18 credit hours in linguistics courses, including a total of 12 credit hours of electives.

Core courses include:

  • Introduction to Linguistics
  • Language Sound Structures
  • Semantics
  • Morphology and Syntax 

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

College of Arts & Sciences magazine cover