UMNLinguistics

09/05/2026

09/05/2026

Thanks to all who stopped by our booth at the fair to talk about Zulu cattle and all things linguistics!

If you took our activity sheets home and want to confirm you aced every question (or want to test your skills now), we've got you covered! Click through the images in this post to learn about Zulu cattle vocabulary... you may unlock some hidden language curiosities along the way!

What animal (or thing) has earned a healthy chunk of vocabulary in YOUR native language?

College of Liberal Arts | University of Minnesota

08/28/2026

Think it's too late to learn a new language? It’s not!

"There are a lot of reasons that you might learn a language, certainly there's the family and heritage reason to make better connections with their family members or more involved with their local community or maybe better understand where they come from." What makes you want to learn a new language? Travel, work opportunities, immigration, intellectual curiosity?

Read the article, listen to the podcast, and find tools to help you choose your next language, here:

https://cla.umn.edu/language-center/news-events/story/mpr-language-learning-adult-discussion-amanda-dalola

08/25/2026

Next week at the MN state fair, join linguistics profs Claire Halpert and Amanda Dalola for a Zulu cow game, learn about faculty research, and more!

Come for the 🎡🍪🍔, stay for the 🗣️💬📚!

Friday, Sept 4, 2026
1:00 – 3:00pm
CLA Table at University of Minnesota Crossroads building (in the Food building)
1674 Dan Patch Avenue

College of Liberal Arts | University of Minnesota University of Minnesota Twin Cities

07/13/2026

Congratulations to Professor Diti Bhadra for being awarded Tenure this summer!

She is 1 of 7 profs in the Language, Culture, and Linguistics departments in the College of Liberal Arts to receive this promotion, having demonstrated intellectual distinction in their chosen field and having had their career accomplishments rigorously reviewed by their University and scholarly peers around the nation and/or world.

06/05/2026

[kənɡræʧəleɪʃənz] to four of our LING masters students for successfully defending their theses! We are immensely proud of you all and wish you the best in your future studies and language-filled endeavors!

Left to right: Finnigan Lewis, Sam Clarke, Charlie Boddy, and Mikayla Krech (with Associate Professor Claire Halpert)

Read more about our graduates' theses topics at:
https://cla.umn.edu/linguistics/news-events/news/congratulations-may-2026-linguistics-ma-graduates

05/07/2026

Why is it, with more than 7,000 languages spoken today, do humans continue to invent new languages? Some do so to correct perceived flaws, others to explore new linguistic possibilities, and still others to enrich the world-building for their imagined tales and heroes.

In this course you will learn about the inner workings of natural languages and use that knowledge to invent a language of your own. Will you imitate or deviate from the properties of natural languages? Is your invented language pleasant-sounding or harsh? Its sentences invitingly simple or mind-numbingly complex? Each week you will refine your language, and step by step you will find your way into the community of language inventors.

LING 1912: Invented Languages
Fall 2026 | M/W 2:30 – 3:45 pm
Freshman Seminar | 3 credits

UMN Languages Department of Anthropology, UMN UMN Psychology University of Minnesota English

04/28/2026

The end of the school year is upon us! Linguistics students, join us on Friday to celebrate the semester's end and the 2026 graduating class!

Friday, May 1 | 3:30pm
Tate Hall 120

04/23/2026

Join us on May 7 to celebrate the launching of the UMN Hmong Corpus and to showcase what the project team has accomplished this year!

Granted a Liberal Arts Engagement Hub residency, the UMN Hmong Corpus Project is a movement to create a digital library about the Hmong people, culture, and community, with an emphasis on the Hmong language.

Thu, May 7, 2026 | 5 - 7 PM
Liberal Arts Engagement Hub, Pillsbury Hall 120
310 Pillsbury Dr SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Please RSVP by April 27 to help with planning! z.umn.edu/hmoobcorpus

UMN Languages University of Minnesota, Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies Hmong Cultural Center of Minnesota

04/21/2026

Linguistics Colloquium
April 24, 2026 at 3:30pm CST

This week's colloquium will feature short student presentations. Honors student Dante Rocío will present his thesis "Impact of Monolingual Language Ideology on Language Accessibility for Immigrants and Refugees in Modern-Day Minnesota" and Field Methods students (Keri Mueller, Charles Boddy, and Allison Moon) will present their research on Amharic semantics, morphology, and syntax.

Join us in Tate Hall 120 or on Zoom (details on https://cla.umn.edu/linguistics/research/colloquium-other-events)