Italian and Linguistics

Italian and linguistics pairs the study of one of the great European languages with the scientific investigation of language itself. Linguistics examines how human language works as a system, how it is acquired, how it varies across communities and changes over time, and what its structure reveals about human cognition and social organisation. Italian provides both the object of linguistic study and a gateway to a literary and cultural tradition of enormous range and influence, from Dante and the Renaissance to contemporary Italian writing and cinema.

The University of Edinburgh has one of the UK's strongest linguistics departments alongside well-developed Italian studies provision, and this four-year full-time programme draws on both. You will develop advanced Italian language skills alongside serious engagement with Italian literature and culture, taking your proficiency to a high academic level. The linguistics component introduces you to the core areas of the discipline, including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics and the psychology of language, developing the analytical tools to understand how language is structured and how it functions in use.

Studying Italian alongside linguistics means you can apply linguistic analysis directly to a language you are learning, which deepens your understanding of both.

The combination develops close analytical attention, the ability to work with complex systems of rules and exceptions, sensitivity to how language shapes and is shaped by social context, and high-level communicative competence in Italian. These are capabilities that serve a wide range of professional and academic goals.

Graduates work in translation and interpreting, teaching, academic research in linguistics or Italian studies, speech therapy, language technology, publishing, journalism, the cultural sector and international organisations. Postgraduate study in linguistics, Italian, applied linguistics, language teaching or speech and language therapy is well supported by the analytical and language foundations this degree provides.