African Linguistics

Degree: Master of Arts in African Linguistics
Mode of Study: Full-time
Duration: 1 year
Start date: September, February
Language of instruction: English
Specialisations:
Share |

The MA African Linguistics gives you the opportunity to work with specialists in a large range of African language families.


The department has excellent contacts with many African universities which may provide useful help in your dealing with both the content and the institutional side of research in Africa. The renowned International Journal of African Languages and Linguistics has his editorial home in Leiden.


Besides the main programme, you can also chose the the specialisation in ‘Berber (Tamazight) Languages and Linguistics’.

The information about this programme is available in the following languages:

This page hasn’t been created yet.

Prof. Maarten Mous

“Our students learn to describe African languages and to analyse the phonetic systems and grammatical rules.”

“One-third of the world’s languages are spoken in Africa. The study of these languages has entered a new era: the time of surveys is over and we are now able to go deeper into these languages and the cultures in which they are embedded.

The purpose of this master’s programme is to train students to be fully equipped to independently gather primary data on an African language, to analyse the data in detail, and to understand them in their cultural and linguistic context and to report on the findings in a way that is appreciated in the international academic arena.

Our programme has an excellent reputation worldwide. Each year we organise a colloquium on African languages in which some eighty international academics participate, and we publish the highly
respected journal, the Journal of African Languages and Linguistics. Also, the University Library in Leiden is one of the best of its kind.

My personal motivation is academic curiosity. Recently I have been doing research at the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology in Australia, a well-known centre for linguistic description. I have acquired a great many new ideas there and inspiration for teaching
and research.”