About

The Linguistics Program at William and Mary was founded in 1978, and since that time we've had an enthusiastic, dedicated following among undergraduates and alumni at the College. We offer a major and minor in linguistics and graduate about twenty-five majors per year.

Linguistics majors study language from a variety of different perspectives, including research in the subfields of history, grammar, syntax, phonology, phonetics, sociolinguistics, culture, geography, and many more. Linguistics is a dynamic and multifaceted field where students with diverse interests find common ground in their mutual fascination with language, even though they might approach it through different disciplinary and methodological lenses. Many of our students pursue double majors in fields such as psychology, modern languages, English, sociology, computer science, business, and beyond.

While pursuing graduate school is one possible path for Linguistics majors, a large percentage go into education or speech-language pathology. Others follow a variety of different paths, attending graduate school in other areas such as Middle Eastern Studies, Classical Studies, Psychology, or Computer Science. Still others attend law school, join the Peace Corps, or seek employment with government agencies or software companies like Rosetta Stone.

Use the links on the left-hand menu to navigate through our prospective student pages to find out more and feel free to contact us by email or phone or visit us in person. You can also see what's happening on our Facebook site!