Graduate Teaching Requirements
While some linguists with PhDs find jobs outside of academia, and some take research positions within academia that do not involve teaching, the majority of our graduate students aspire to academic jobs in Linguistics that will involve both graduate and undergraduate teaching. In order to be competitive for these jobs, students must demonstrate a high level of teaching ability and experience. Teaching is therefore a standard part of our graduate program, both in the form of mostly in the form of Teaching Assistantships, and in some cases, stand-alone Lectureships.
Degree Requirements
The PhD program in Linguistics at the University of Chicago carries a comprehensive set of coursework, language, and teaching requirements. Students must complete thirteen courses in total, six of which must be taken during their first year, and all of which must be taught by faculty to count toward the requirements. Eight of those courses are foundational, typically spread four per year across the first two years and selected from a set list of options.
Funding
PhD students who matriculate in Summer 2020 and after will be guaranteed to have funding support from the University of Chicago, external sources, or a combination of the two for the duration of their program to include the following:
Admissions
Completed applications for admission and aid, along with all supporting materials, are due in December of the proceeding year. You’ll find the link to the application as well as info on divisional deadlines on the Division of the Arts & Humanities site. Four parts of the application are critically important:
Graduate Program
The PhD program in linguistics is designed to be completed in six years within the University of Chicago’s quarter system, combining intensive coursework, independent research, language study, professional development, and teaching experience. Students typically take three courses per quarter over three quarters each year, with most coursework completed in the first three to four years. During this time, they fulfill foundational and advanced course requirements, complete a methods course, and take the Research Seminar while developing two qualifying papers under faculty supervision.
Courses
See our searchable database below for Department of Linguistics courses from the 2026-27 academic year. Feel free to browse the database by level of course (graduate, undergraduate), term, subject code, or instructor to find more specific information about our course offerings, including course descriptions.
Kinyarwanda
Spoken by around 18 million in Central and Eastern Africa, Kinyarwanda / Kirundi is one of the most spoken Bantu languages and has the status of an official language in Rwanda and Burundi. Based on a conversation book and a grammar guide, Introduction to Kinyarwanda I integrates speaking practice and linguistic discussion. It will allow the students to understand fundamental structures of Kinyarwanda in various areas. Topics include sound and tonal patterns, noun class agreements, verb moods, and sentence structures.
African Languages
Language, Identity, and Development in Africa
LING 28345 / LING 38345; Fall, Tu/Th, 2:00-3:20pm
Fidèle Mpiranya (fmpiranya@uchicago.edu)
Swahili
Swahili is the most popular language of Sub-Saharan Africa. It is spoken by approximately 50 million people in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, eastern Congo (DRC), the Comoros, and, marginally, in northern Mozambique, southern Somalia, northern Malawi and northern Zambia. Swahili is a national language in Tanzania, Kenya and Congo (DRC). It also has official status in Tanzania, Kenya and in Uganda (along with English).
Swahili is characterized by the typical complex Bantu structure. However, it is particularly easy to pronounce and fast learned.
Modern Greek
Greek is an Indo-European language that has been spoken and written for four thousand years in a small area of southeastern Europe. The written tradition of Greek is evidenced in texts in Linear B (a syllabic script) from ancient times (15th century BCE). Today, Modern Greek is the official language of Greece, a small country with a population of eleven million people. Although Modern Greek is a language spoken by a small number of people in a limited area of the world, it has had a great cultural impact all over the planet.