Portuguese and Linguistics, MA (Hons)

Portuguese, one of the world's ten most widely spoken languages with approximately 260 million speakers, thrives across diverse cultures from Brazil to Mozambique. This flexible programme welcomes beginners, allowing students to study Portuguese while building a social scientific understanding of language. It combines exploration of the language in its global cultural context with the study of meaning expression, alongside linguistics topics such as speech sounds, language variation, and the structure of world languages.Designed for learners at all levels, the programme at Edinburgh develops advanced spoken and written Portuguese skills through intensive training and immersion in literature, film, music, and arts from Portugal, Brazil, and lusophone Africa, all within their historical contexts. Students spend Year 3 in a Portuguese-speaking country. Linguistics examines how language operates, its everyday uses, societal evolution, and acquisition, enabling hypothesis testing with specialist equipment. Over four years, the degree fosters intercultural competence and career skills, with broad course options in the first two years and specialisation thereafter.