Courses

Prepares linguists and literacy workers to guide speakers of an unwritten language to develop an orthography that will accurately represent the sound system of the language, be acceptable to the speakers of the language, and be easily learned for reading and writing the language. This includes consideration of both linguistic and sociolinguistic factors, and representation of non-segmental features such as tone. Although the focus is on alphabetic scripts, non-Roman scripts, including syllabic and logographic, are also considered.

This course develops skills in academic writing for linguistics, including articles, abstracts, theses, books, etc.

An examination of special topics or issues in linguistics that are not covered in depth in other courses.

Every non-thesis student in the MA Linguistics program is required to write a comprehensive exam in the last semester of their program. Contact the program director for details.

The student, in frequent consultation with his/her advisor, selects a thesis topic and writes a thesis proposal. Once the proposal has been accepted by the student's thesis advisory committee, he/ she begins writing the thesis. There are no formal classes.

The student, in consultation with his/her advisor, works towards completion of the thesis. Upon completion, the thesis must be defended orally before an examining committee. There are no formal classes.