Portuguese and Modern Greek

Portuguese and Modern Greek is a combination that connects two Romance and Greek traditions across a shared Mediterranean and Atlantic history, giving you access to languages that between them carry the traces of ancient empires, maritime exploration, and twentieth-century political transformation. Portuguese is the language of one of the world's first global empires, spoken today by hundreds of millions of people across Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, and Portugal itself, with a literary tradition that includes some of the most distinctive voices in world literature. Modern Greek is the continuation of one of the oldest attested languages in human history, the official language of Greece and Cyprus, and the key to a culture that has moved from Byzantine empire through Ottoman rule to contemporary European democracy, carrying a rich body of literature, poetry, and cinema along the way.

At the University of Oxford, this four-year full-time programme is taught through the tutorial system, giving you sustained, intensive engagement with scholars who are specialists in each language and the cultural and historical worlds they open. You will develop your competence in both languages to a high level, working across their literary, historical, and contemporary registers. In Portuguese you will engage with the literary and cultural traditions of both Portugal and Brazil, examining how the language has carried different meanings and shaped different identities in its various communities.

In Modern Greek you will study literature, history, and culture from the Byzantine period to the present, developing fluency in a language that carries both ancient resonance and contemporary vitality.

Graduates pursue careers in translation and interpreting, diplomacy, academia, journalism, international law, and cultural organisations. Many continue to doctoral research in Portuguese studies, modern Greek, or comparative Romance and Hellenic linguistics. The combination is rare and intellectually demanding, and the Oxford tutorial environment is well suited to students who want to pursue both languages with genuine depth.