Language Diversity of Africa, Asia and Native America

Specialisation of: Linguistics
Degree: Master of Arts in Linguistics
Mode of Study: Full-time
Duration: 1 year
Start date: September, February
Language of instruction: English
Location: Leiden
Croho/isat code: 60815
Share |

Your mind will be expanded in the MA specialisation Language Diversity of Africa, Asia and Native America, as you will find how linguistic structures from languages spoken around the world differ vastly from our familiar Indo-European languages.

This programme, unique in the Netherlands, is taught by experts who regularly carry out research in Africa, Asia and the Americas, enabling you to benefit from their relevant experience on the exoticisms of each region, such as the prevalence of evidentiality in the Americas, serial verb constructions in Africa and politeness registers in Asia.

While you experience how these languages overturn our ideas about language universals, you will learn how to compare and evaluate key research directions in descriptive linguistics, ultimately equipping you with the insights and skills required to carry out independent research. The insights you gain in this programme give you a solid basis for further studies.

Reasons to choose Linguistics in Leiden

  • The Leiden Master’s Programme in Linguistics focuses on the study of the complexity of natural languages spoken in Africa, Asia and Native America.
  • You are free choose courses from the rich variety of language programmes at the Leiden University – where more than eighty different languages from all over the world are studied – or courses from other universities in the Netherlands.
  • Our relatively small but dedicated staff of active researchers is enthusiastic to provide you with relevant education and guidance.
  • You will benefit from the actual linguistics research at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL), which is the foundation for all our Linguistics courses.
  • We value intensive and informal communication with our students.

Prof. Maarten Mous

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.”