Karly

(A friendly guide for freshers, A-level students, language lovers, and accidental linguists)

So you’re about to study linguistics. Or maybe you’re starting to notice the word showing up on your syllabus next to things like “IPA” or “declarative clause,” and you’re already panicking. Maybe you’re doing a languages degree and someone casually mentioned that you’d be “taking a linguistics module”, and you nodded politely while Googling under the table.

This is your reminder: you’re fine. It’s not that deep. Except when it is, but in a fun way.

Linguistics is the study of language in all its chaotic glory. As someone who had the most amazing lecturers for linguistics in undergrad, who managed to transfer the love they felt for their subject onto their students, it almost feels like a duty to try and do the same, even if I’m not the lecturer, so this post is your unofficial welcome pack.

What Is Linguistics, Really?

Linguistics is the academic study of how language works,  not just what it says, but how it’s built, how it’s used, and why it changes. It’s kind of like opening up the back of a clock and seeing all the gears. Only the clock is your brain. And the gears are accents, metaphors, passive voice, vocal fry, and the occasional emoji.

It’s the subject where you can analyse a Taylor Swift lyric, a child’s first word, a viral TikTok phrase, and a 500-year-old poem, and count all of it as data.

A Gentle Guide to the Main Areas of Linguistics

You do not need to memorise these. Just think of them as different lenses for looking at language:

✦ Phonetics

The actual sounds we make. This is where you learn the difference between a [p] and a [b], why you aspirate one but not the other, and what’s going on with the way people pronounce “water” in different countries. Also, the IPA chart (International Phonetic Alphabet) will become your best frenemy.

You’ll never hear your own voice the same way again.

✦ Phonology

How sounds are organised in a language. Why “splink” sounds possible but “nglab” doesn’t. Why English has stress patterns and French doesn’t. This is the logic beneath the noise.

It’s like musical theory, but for language.

✦ Morphology

How words are built. Root words, prefixes, suffixes,  all the building blocks. Morphology helps you understand why we say unhappiness but not happylessun. Also: where does “irregardless” fit in? Is it a mistake or innovation? (Spoiler: linguists love this debate.)

✦ Syntax

The structure of sentences. Why “The cat sat on the mat” makes sense, but “Sat the mat on cat the” doesn’t. You’ll start noticing word order in every language you hear. You’ll also realise sentence trees are terrifying at first but kind of addictive.

Syntax is like Lego for your brain. I personally hate it. I have a complicated history with syntax trees. 

✦ Semantics

What words mean, and how meaning can shift. Why “literally” now sometimes means “figuratively.” Why “I’m fine” doesn’t always mean what it says. At some point, you’ll encounter semantic formulas. They look scary, but they’re not.

✦ Pragmatics

What people really mean. Tone, subtext, sarcasm, flirting, ghosting, small talk, politeness, “just wondering if I could maybe ask a quick question” energy. This is the study of language-in-context.

Pragmatics is where the tea lives.

✦ Sociolinguistics

Language and identity. How your accent, slang, gender, age, class, or region affect how you speak and how people perceive you. Why people judge “like” or vocal fry. Why code-switching exists. Why certain accents or dialects get labelled as “unprofessional” and others don’t.

This is the part of linguistics that feels most personal.

✦ Psycholinguistics

How our brains process and produce language. Why toddlers say “I goed” and why you can forget a word mid-sentence even though it was right there. It’s part language, part neuroscience, part “why does my brain do that?”

✦ historical linguistics

How languages evolve over time. This is the part of linguistics that studies how a word like knight started with a pronounced k, how girl once meant any young person regardless of gender, and how Latin broke up with itself and became French, Spanish, Italian, and more.

Historical linguists look at language like it’s a fossil record: full of patterns, splits, migrations, and the occasional mystery. You’ll learn about sound shifts (like Grimm’s Law), semantic drift (when words slowly change meaning), and false friends (when two words look related but aren’t, emotional damage ensues).

If you’ve ever fallen down an etymology rabbit hole or wondered why English spelling is so cursed, this is your area.

What You Don’t Need to Worry About (Yet)

• You don’t need to speak a million languages
  
• You don’t need to be good at maths
  
• You don’t need to have perfect grammar
  
• You don’t need to understand all the jargon on day one
  

If you’re doing linguistics as part of a language degree, you’re already ahead of the game. You’ve probably heard these patterns at work, in Spanish conjugation, in French word order, in German declensions that seem to have a mind of their own. Linguistics helps you zoom out and see the systems behind the chaos.

Real Things Linguists Actually Do

• Study how people text (yes, “lol” has meaning)
  
• Analyse why politicians use certain speech patterns
  
• Research language death and preservation
  
• Design subtitles and AI voice systems
  
• Help diagnose speech and language disorders
  
• Build conlangs (like Elvish or Klingon)
  
• Explain why you sound different on voice notes
  
• Teach you how to win arguments about commas

It’s both academic and extremely practical. It’s also full of debates. Linguists love a debate.

A Note on Impostor Syndrome

You might feel like you don’t “sound” academic enough. Or like you’re not allowed to have opinions on language until you’ve read every textbook ever written. This is not true. Linguistics wants you to ask questions. It thrives on curiosity and chaos. You don’t need to come in with the answers. You just need to be curious about how people communicate.

If you’ve ever asked:

• “Why do I sound different in English vs. Spanish?”
  
• “Why do I say ‘like’ so much, and is it bad?”
  
• “Why is ‘I’m sorry’ such a weird phrase?”
  
• “Why does this emoji change the whole tone of the message?”
  

Then congratulations. You’re already thinking like a linguist.

TL;DR: What You Should Take Away

• Linguistics is the study of language as a system, a tool, and a mirror.
  
• You’ll never hear yourself (or others) the same way again.
  
• It’s okay to be confused at first. That’s part of it.
  
• Your weird questions about language are valid and probably already a field of study.
  
• You’re going to start noticing everything, tone, rhythm, spelling, repetitions, silence.
  
• You’ll annoy your friends. It’s part of the charm.