Linguistics

University of California, Berkeley

Overview

Housing the first linguistics department established in North America in 1901, UC Berkeley has a rich and distinguished tradition of rigorous linguistic documentation and theoretical innovation, thus making it an exciting and fulfilling place to carry out linguistic research. The department's original mission, from the anthropologist Alfred Kroeber and the Sanskrit and Dravidian scholar Murray B. Emeneau, was the recording and describing of unwritten languages, especially American Indian languages spoken in California and elsewhere in the United States. The current Department of Linguistics continues this tradition, integrating careful, scholarly documentation with cutting-edge theoretical work in phonetics, phonology, and morphology; syntax, semantics, and pragmatics; psycholinguistics; sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics; historical linguistics; typology; and language and cognition.

Much of the research is potentially interdisciplinary and/or involves the careful documentation of individual languages, language families, and their histories. The department has always had a strong commitment to the study of American Indian languages, and it also has special strengths in African, Asian, and European languages. Many of the faculty and graduate students participate in the activities of the Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences, where they interact with scholars from a number of other disciplines including Psychology, Anthropology, Philosophy, Computer Science, Education, etc.

Facilities

The PhonLab (Phonetics/Phonology Lab) is a research and teaching laboratory within the department that focuses on documenting and explaining sound patterns in language.

The California Language Archive (1311 Dwinelle Hall) is a physical and digital archive for materials related to the Indigenous languages of the Americas, with core missions of preservation, access, and outreach. We also support the documentation, maintenance, reclamation, and revitalization of these languages. Our catalog also includes sound recordings held by the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology.

Undergraduate Programs

Linguistics: BA, Minor

Graduate Program

Linguistics: PhD

Visit Department Website

Courses

Linguistics

Contact Information

Department of Linguistics

1203 Dwinelle Hall

Phone: 510-642-2757

linginfo@berkeley.edu

Visit Department Website

Department Chair

Terry Regier, PhD

1221 Dwinelle Hall

terry.regier@berkeley.edu

Department Manager

Susan Luong

Phone: 510-643-7623

lingmgr@berkeley.edu

Undergraduate Student Advisor

Martine Alexander

Phone: 510-642-2757

LingMajorAdvisor@berkeley.edu

Graduate Student Services Advisor

Johnny Morales Arellano

Phone: 510-643-7224

ling-gsao@berkeley.edu

Manager, California Language Archive

Zachary O'Hagan

https://cla.berkeley.edu/

scoil-ling@berkeley.edu

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