About
Linguistics is the study of how language works: its internal structure and patterns, how it
is learned and encoded in the human mind, and how it reflects and reinforces social
structures. The capacity to transform thought into talk, text, or sign is one of the defining
characteristics of being human, and linguistics deals with all facets of this ability.
Because language is a fundamental part of human cognition and culture, linguistics has
many applications and connections with other fields, including anthropology, psychology,
philosophy, history, and literature.
The Program in Linguistics at Saint Mary’s University is the only one of its kind in the
Maritimes. It includes core courses on the analysis of speech sounds, words, sentences, and
meanings, and a richly interdisciplinary range of electives on language in society, language
in the brain, and applied linguistics. The structure of our program allows students to
develop sophisticated analytic abilities in linguistics and explore its applications and its
connections with other fields of study.
Programs offered: Honours • Major • Minor • Concentration • Certificate
Links
- Linguistics at the Patrick Power Library
- Admissions requirements for Canadian programs in Speech-Language Pathology
Scholarly and professional associations
- Atlantic Provinces Linguistic Association (APLA) | Association de linguistique des provinces atlantiques (ALPA)
- Canadian Linguistic Association (CLA) | Association canadienne de linguistique (ACL)
- Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics (CAAL) | Association canadienne de linguistique appliquée (ACLA)
- National Indigenous Knowledge & Language Alliance (NIKLA) | Alliance nationale des connaissances et des langues autochtones (ANCLA)
- Linguistic Society of America (LSA)
- Linguistics Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (LAGB)
- International Phonetic Association (IPA)
- Speech-Language & Audiology Canada (SAC) | Orthophonie et Audiologie Canada(OAC)
Software and resources
- Interactive sagittal section
- International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) chart with audio
- Praat: doing phonetics by computer
- RSyntaxTree (Syntax tree generator by Yoichiro Hasebe)
Blogs, podcasts, etc.
- Lingthusiasm (podcast by Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch)
- Spectacular Vernacular (podcast by Nicole Holliday and Ben Zimmer)
- The Vocal Fries (podcast by Carrie Gillon and Megan Figueroa)
- Tom’s Language Files (video series by Tom Scott)
- Babel: The language magazine
- Our Languages blog
- Language Log (blog by Mark Liberman, Geoffrey Pullum, and others)