Master of Arts  in Linguistics Top Colleges, Syllabus, Scope and Salary

MA in Linguistics is 2-year full-time postgraduate course, the minimum eligibility for admission to which is graduation completed in any stream from a recognized university, with a minimum aggregate score of 50%. The program is spread over 4 semesters.

Admission to the course is based on the candidate’s performance in a relevant entrance test as also the aggregate score in graduation.

Master of Arts in Maharashtra

Master of Arts in Tamil Nadu

Master of Arts in Uttar Pradesh

Master of Arts in Andhra Pradesh

The average tuition fee charged for the course in India ranges between INR 12,000 and 18,000 for a span of 2 years, and the average annual salary offered to such professionals ranges between INR 4 and 7 Lacs, increasing with the candidate’s experience and expertise.

MA in Linguistics: Course Highlights

Listed below are some of the major highlights of the course.

MA in Linguistics: What is it About?

MA in Applied Linguistics is an interdisciplinary course which aims to offer to eligible candidates:

• a firm understanding of the basis of language and linguistics.

• valuable insight into the relationship between language, culture and society.
• skills in practical application of theories to the social context
• analytical and linguistic skills by introducing different approaches to the analysis of language use.

Modern linguistics is the scientific study of all aspects of the world’s languages from their sound systems and grammatical structure through to the interaction of language with culture, the study of meaning in language, and the use of language in modern technology. Linguists try to establish what types of structures are shared by different languages and the extent to which languages may differ from each other.

The discipline includes three broad areas:

• Theoretical Linguistics (phonology, syntax, semantics)
• Psycholinguistics (language acquisition, language processing)
• Language Use (discourse studies, bilingualism, phonetics, historical linguistics)

Enrolled students are offered a solid background in all these three domains, and are needed to choose a series of elective courses in order to specialise in one area. The course includes:

• training in empirical, computational, and experimental methodology.
• practical lessons in designing, planning, and carrying out an end-semester research project during internship and thesis-related work.
• advanced lessons in the field of linguistics, and in a particular linguistics subdiscipline.
• lessons in the academic, communication and methodological skills needed for carrying out individual research.

Top Institutes offering MA in Linguistics

Listed below are some of the top institutes in India that offer the course.

Eligibility for MA in Linguistics

Candidates wishing to apply for the course need to have:

• completed graduation from a recognized university in any stream.

• attained a minimum aggregate score of 50% at the level of graduation.

MA in Linguistics: Admission Process

Most institutes offering the course admit students based on their performance in a relevant entrance test.>Some institutes conduct their own entrance tests for offering admission. Admission process generally varies across colleges.

A few institutes also provide direct admission based on the candidate’s score at the level of graduation.

Some such universities that hold entrance tests in the country for admission to the course are:

• Jawaharlal Nehru University
• Faculty of Arts, Delhi University
• Banaras Hindu University

MA in Linguistics: Syllabus and Course Description

A semester-wise breakup of the course’s syllabus is tabulated here.

MA in Linguistics: Career Prospects

Successful postgraduates of the course are equipped with:

• valuable intellectual skills, such as analytical reasoning, critical thinking, argumentation, and clarity of expression.

• skills for making insightful observations, formulating clear, testable hypotheses, generating predictions, making arguments and drawing conclusions, and communicating such findings to a wider community.
• skills to helm a variety of graduate-level and professional programs and careers in the discipline.
• skills in working on speech recognition, text-to-speech synthesis, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, user research, and computer-mediated language learning, among many other areas.
• skills needed to develop materials for different populations, train teachers, design assessments, find effective ways to teach language-related topics in specific communities
• proficiency in using the language of a community effectively for instruction purposes.
• the professional ability to undertake educational research.

Such postgraduates can pursue relevant roles in:

• teaching, publishing and in government administration.
• dictionary-compiling.
• proof-reading and editing.
• speech and language therapy
• computer programming and information technology.

Interested postgraduates may also pursue Ph.D. or M.Phil. in linguistics.

Some of the popular professional avenues open to successful postgraduates of the course are listed below with the corresponding salaries offered for the respective positions.

Aspirants seeking to get admission in a program must have a Bachelor’s Degree or its equivalent qualification from a recognized University. 

MA Course details are given below. 

Eligibility

• Candidates should have passed B.A in the respective subjects from a recognized institution 
• Candidates appearing/ appeared the final semester examination in BA with respective subjects can also apply.
• Candidates with bachelor's degree in any discipline can apply for MA in linguistics and Tribal languages and for MA in journalism and mass communication 
• Candidates with PG diploma in Kokborok can also apply for MA in Kokborok.

Selection Criteria

Selections in MA programs will be strictly based on the Mark's obtained during graduation. University will release a Merit list accordingly.