UCLA’s Linguistics Department began as an interdepartmental graduate M.A. program in 1960; a Ph.D. program was introduced in 1962, and a B.A. program in 1965. The department was established in 1966, and has flourished ever since.

At the graduate level, the department offers M.A. and Ph.D. degree programs in Linguistics, and its faculty participate in interdepartmental Ph.D. programs in Biomedical Engineering, American Indian Studies, Asia Insititute and African Studies. Our faculty and graduate program are internationally acclaimed, and we attract some of the best and brightest graduate students from this country and abroad, with a current graduate student population of between 40 students from ten countries.

The goal of the UCLA Linguistics Department’s program is to provide a basic education like human language and linguistic theory for undergraduates, and to train graduate students as university teachers and as researchers in the major areas of linguistics.