Chinese and Linguistics
Chinese is one of the world's most significant languages, spoken by more people than any other and central to understanding the culture, history, and contemporary global influence of China. Mandarin Chinese, as the standard spoken form, and written Chinese together provide access to a civilisation with millennia of recorded literature, philosophy, and art, as well as to one of the world's most dynamic economies. Linguistics, studied alongside Chinese, brings a scientific perspective on how language works, examining structure, meaning, acquisition, and the ways in which languages are shaped by social and cognitive forces.
At the University of Edinburgh, this four-year full-time programme develops your Chinese language skills to an advanced level through sustained study of Mandarin and the written language, alongside engagement with Chinese literature, history, culture, and contemporary society. The linguistics component provides rigorous training in the analysis of language, covering phonology, syntax, semantics, and other core areas, and gives you theoretical tools that can be applied both to Chinese and to language more broadly. Studying Chinese and linguistics together opens up particularly interesting questions about a language that differs from European languages in fundamental structural ways, from its tonal phonology and logographic writing system to its grammatical organisation.
Graduates from Chinese and linguistics programmes are in demand across a wide range of fields. Chinese language expertise is valued in business, finance, law, diplomacy, journalism, translation, and the international organisations where China plays an increasingly prominent role. The additional linguistic training strengthens your analytical capabilities and opens doors in language research, natural language processing, education, and speech technology.
Postgraduate study in Chinese, linguistics, translation, or East Asian studies is a common path for graduates who wish to develop their expertise further.