German and Linguistics

German and linguistics at the University of Oxford is a degree that combines serious language study with systematic inquiry into the nature of language itself. German is one of Europe's most important languages, the first language of around ninety million people and the medium through which a major literary, philosophical, scientific, and cultural tradition has been developed and transmitted. Linguistics is the scientific study of language: its structure, history, acquisition, variation, and the ways in which language shapes and is shaped by thought, culture, and society.

Oxford's MA German and Linguistics runs over four years and is among the most demanding and distinguished programmes of its kind in the UK.

As the current description notes, the programme allows you to study one modern language in depth alongside linguistics. The German component takes you to a very high level of practical proficiency while also giving you the opportunity to explore the literature and culture of the German-speaking world. You will read major texts in German with the depth that a literary and cultural education requires, and develop your speaking and writing in the language across formal and informal registers.

The linguistics component develops your understanding of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics as formal systems, alongside historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and the philosophy of language. Oxford's tutorial system gives you exceptionally close academic mentorship throughout the degree.

Graduates of German and linguistics programmes from Oxford are exceptionally well placed in the employment market. The depth of linguistic training is valuable in careers spanning translation and interpreting, lexicography, speech and language therapy training, natural language processing and computational linguistics, academic research, and language teaching. German language proficiency opens further doors in international business, diplomacy, European institutions, journalism, and cultural work.

Many graduates go on to postgraduate study at Oxford or elsewhere, in linguistics, German studies, computational linguistics, or related disciplines. The combination of intellectual rigour, linguistic depth, and cultural knowledge that this programme develops is among the most distinctive available at undergraduate level in the UK.