Skip to Content

Related Languages

Department: Arabic Studies (Religious Studies)
Number of Users Worldwide: 420 million
Offerings: Levels 100-300, Minor
Today, Arabic is the native language of over 300 million speakers in North Africa and West Asia. Arabic is also the primary language for Islamic scholarship from the seventh century to the present, and has historically functioned as a lingua franca for the entire Muslim scholarly world. Arabic has long served as the spoken and written language for a number of other confessional communities (Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Mandeans, and others).
Region Affiliations: Middle East and Africa

Department: Romance Languages
Number of Users Worldwide: 220 Million
Offerings: Levels 100-600, SLAT, Minor, BA, Master’s, PhD
French is spoken in more than 50 countries worldwide, is an official language in 29 countries, and maintains its status as a major language of culture, diplomacy, and economics. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, established in 1970 and usually referred to as “La Francophonie,” includes 53 member states on several continents. French is a passport to much of the world! In the French sector in the Department of Romance Languages, we teach courses ranging from beginning language instruction through graduate seminars designed for Masters and PhD students. Our language courses emphasize real-world proficiency as well as the history and culture of the Francophone world. Our upper-division and graduate courses cover a broad range of geographic areas and historical periods of French cultural production. Our teaching faculty includes experts in the French of France, Québec, the Caribbean, and Africa. Our work is highly interdisciplinary and French faculty are members of programs including African Studies, Comparative Literature, European Studies, Medieval Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies.

 

Department: Judaic Studies
Offerings: Levels 100-300, BA
Hebrew has gone through periods of strength and weakness during its unique history. At the end of the nineteenth century, the process of the Hebrew language revival began by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. This revival process is considered one of the rarest successful examples of reviving a dead language. As a result, Modern Hebrew became the official language of the state of Israel (1948), and today is used by 10 million (Jewish and non-Jewish) people worldwide. The program offers a major leading to a bachelor of arts (BA) degree and minor. It sponsors courses, lectures, and other events of interest to the general student population and the wider community.
Region Affiliations: Middle East and Africa

Department: Yamada Language Center
Number of Users Worldwide: 110 million
Offerings: LT 199 – Self-Study Program
Farsi, or Persian, is an Indo-European language spoken primarily in Iran with dialects spoken in Afghanistan (Dari) and Tajikistan (Tajik). It has a wide range of influence from the Turkic languages and Arabic, but is still distinctively its own. There are 110 million speakers of Farsi in the world. Though Iran is adjacent to Arab countries and Farsi uses the Arabic script, the culture and language is distinguishable. Farsi has added letters to the Arabic alphabet and has its own pronunciation.
Region Affiliations: Middle East and Africa

Department: Yamada Language Center
Number of Users Worldwide: 88 million
Offerings: LT 199 – Self-Study Program
Turkish, also referred to as Istanbul Turkish, is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with about 75 million speakers in Turkey and in 35 other countries, including Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Iran, Iraq and Israel. Turkish Culture is unique in the world in that it has influenced and has been influenced in return by cultures and civilizations from China to Vienna and from Russian steps to North Africa for over a millennia. Turkish culture reflects this unparalleled cultural richness and diversity, and remains mostly shaped by its deep roots in Middle East, Anatolia and Balkans, the cradle of many civilizations for at least twelve thousand years.
Region Affiliations: Europe, Middle East and Africa