The program in linguistics offers graduate work leading to a special case MA degree for students who have completed a B.A. Honours degree in linguistics, or equivalent. Applicants should send a transcript showing a linguistics degree or showing the courses in linguistics which they have taken, along with a statement of areas of linguistics in which they would like to do graduate research for their MA thesis. Participating faculty members can then assess whether more linguistics courses are needed in a qualifying year and which ones, or whether the student is eligible for admission as a fully qualified graduate student. The statement of research interests will help us design possible thesis topics and outlines with the applicant, and to see which faculty might serve on the thesis committee and as thesis supervisor. The student who is admitted to the MA program will take a minimum of 15 credit hours of graduate level courses, including Linguistics 830 and 880. In addition, a minimum of 15 hours of thesis research is required (Linguistics 901) which can be taken over several semesters.

Participating faculty are housed in various departments of the university and its federated colleges, the only full-time linguistics personnel being in the department of Indian Languages, Literature and Linguistics in the First Nations University of Canada on the university campus. As such, the program has a primary focus on the linguistic structure of First Nations languages of the Americas.