Language Study

College of Arts & Sciences Language Requirement

• Option 1: Passing a 2000 level (or above) course in a foreign language at Cornell or
• Option 2: Passing at least eleven credits of study in a single foreign language at Cornell (usually an introductory sequence)

The Arts and Sciences language requirement can only be fulfilled by courses taken at Cornell.

This is a College, not a department, policy. Please take this into account as you plan your work at Cornell and elsewhere. For more information about the Arts & Sciences requirement, and the college policy on exemptions please visit the College site.

The department offers courses in several languages which can fulfill the college language requirement: Arabic, Modern Hebrew, Turkish and Persian.

Students who plan to study a language at Cornell must take a language placement exam to determine the correct level for enrollment.  To arrange your language placement exam, contact one of the following language instructors:

• Munther Younes: Language placement in Arabic 
• Shalom Shoer: Language placement in Hebrew
• Iago Gocheleishvili: Language placement in Persian/Farsi
• Banu Ozer-Griffin: Language placement in Turkish

If you are interested in taking a CASE (Cornell Advanced Standing Exam) in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, or Turkish contact the appropriate instructor listed above. 

The department now offers a minor in Arabic.

Arabic is the official language of 22 countries and the fifth-most spoken language in the world. It is also one of six official languages of the United Nations.  In addition to its global political importance, Arabic opens the door to an immensely rich and diverse cultural heritage in the Middle East and beyond. Proficiency in Arabic also opens the way for many graduates to obtain exciting jobs in academia, the government and think tanks.

The program integrates the Arabic dialects and Modern Standard Arabic together in the classroom.  From Day 1, you will be learning to communicate the way that native speakers do with one another.  Students study from the ‘Arabiyyat al-Naas series, developed right here at Cornell.

In addition to the regular six-semester sequence of elementary, intermediate and advanced Arabic, the Arabic program offers a variety of courses including Qur’anic Arabic, media Arabic, Arabic through film and Modern Arabic literature. The program also offers an elementary course designed specifically for heritage speakers of Arabic who wish to develop their reading and writing skills.

Contact Arabic program director Munther Younes for more information.

Arabic courses offered by the department

• ARAB 1200 - Intensive Arabic I
• ARAB 1201 - Elementary Arabic I
• ARAB 1202 - Elementary Arabic II
• ARAB 1203 - Intermediate Arabic I
• ARAB 1287 - Arabic for Hebrew Speakers
• ARAB 2201 - Arabic for Heritage Speakers
• ARAB 2202 - Intermediate Arabic II
• ARAB 2204 - Introduction to Quranic Arabic
• ARAB 3201 - Advanced Arabic I
• ARAB 3202 - Advanced Arabic II
• ARAB 3202 - Arab Society and Culture
• ARAB 3206 - Intensive Arabic II
• ARAB 3210 - Arabic Grammar and Writing (In Arabic)
• ARAB 3687 - Kalila wa Dimna for Students of Arabic
• ARAB 3700 - Arabic Language Through Film
• ARAB 4200 - Modern Arabic Literature
• ARAB 4203 - Current Events in Arabic Media
• ARAB 4867 -  In Search of the Original Quran

Whether you are preparing for travel abroad or are passionate about achieving fluency in a language that is important to you, when studying Hebrew at Cornell you will be part of a close knit group of students and faculty. Courses are built to enhance not only contemporary communication skills, but also to give students a window through which to understand the past. So, join us in learning about the many aspects of Jewish and Israeli culture, society, literature and history!

Hebrew (or 'Ivrit) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family, spoken by more than eight million people in Israel and around the world.

Modern Hebrew is a fusion of old and new, native and foreign. Between the end of the Biblical period and the beginning of Modern Hebrew, there exists a gap of roughly two thousand years during which Hebrew was used exclusively as a literary and liturgical language, and was not used as a spoken language. It was taught mostly for religious purposes but had no native speakers.

When the revival of the Modern Hebrew language started towards the end of the 19th century, people soon realized that Biblical Hebrew could not be the sole source for vocabulary needed for modern daily life. A need to supplement Hebrew vocabulary arose. Vocabulary items that did not exist in the Bible were supplemented by other sources, such as religious texts and medieval poetry. At times, additional sources needed to be created or borrowed and were formed using already existing forms and compiled with the linguistic principles of Biblical Hebrew. 

Courses offered through the department introduce our students to the culture, language and literature of modern Israel. The courses support students at their current level of Hebrew but also focus on continuing the development and enhancement of the student's command of grammar as well as writing, reading, speaking, and comprehension.

Contact Shalom Shoer for more information about studying Hebrew at Cornell.

Modern Hebrew courses offered by the department:

• HEBRW 1101 - Elementary Modern Hebrew I
• HEBRW 1102 - Elementary Modern Hebrew II
• HEBRW 1103 - Elementary Modern Hebrew III
• HEBRW 2100 - Intermediate Modern Hebrew
• HEBRW 3101 - Advanced Modern Hebrew I
• HEBRW 3102 - Advanced Modern Hebrew II
• HEBRW 4102 - Topics in Biblical Hebrew Prose

Hebrew conversation hours

Shalom Shoer hosts a weekly Hebrew conversation hour each semester for students who wish to improve their Hebrew conversation skills. All Cornell students are welcome to attend. These are being held virtually at this time.

Persian, an Indo-European language related to English and German, was the vehicle of a rich and diverse Persianate culture that linked people from areas extending beyond Iran into the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Caucasus and Anatolia. Until the mid-19th century, Persian was the official language of the Indian subcontinent, and Ottoman Turkish and Urdu (Pakistan) languages have been heavily influenced by Persian in their structure and vocabulary. It is the language of more than 110 million people around the world and is the official language of Iran (as Farsi), Afghanistan (as Dari) and Tajikistan (Tajik) – three vitally important countries for U.S. foreign affairs in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Persian is a sought-after language in international organizations, development and aid agencies, government agencies, journalism, think tanks and NGOs. There is a demand but a low supply of qualified Persian-speaking experts. Many of our students study Persian every year to prepare for employment in government agencies and international organizations. Our students are also often graduate students working in the fields of history, literature and art pertaining to India, Central Asia and Turkey. Persian is a necessary skill for scholars who carry out field work and research on art, literature, history of Central Asia, Caucasus, Iran and Anatolia.

Contact Iago Gocheleishvili about Persian courses at Cornell.

Persian language courses offered by the department:

• PERSN 1320 - Elementary Persian/Farsi I
• PERSN 1321 - Elementary Persian/Farsi II
• PERSN 1322 - Intermediate Persian/Farsi I
• PERSN 2322 - Intermediate Persian/Farsi II

Turkish is the official language of Turkey and one of the major languages of the world, with over 80 million speakers. It is one of around twenty languages that form the Turkish language family in a zone that extends from the Adriatic Sea in the west to Mongolia, Siberia and China. There are a large number of Turkish speakers who live outside of Turkey, in Europe in territories which used to form a part of the Ottoman Empire; Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Bosnia, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq.

Turkish is highly influenced by Persian and Arabic lexicon. It is also the foundation for Ottoman Turkish. It has an extremely regular structure with a few exceptions. For its incredible history since ancient times and its vital geographical location, studying Turkish will be advantageous for scholars, and researchers. Learning Turkish will also help graduates who want to pursue work in US government or international organizations.

Contact Banu Ozer-Griffin for more information about learning Turkish at Cornell.

Turkish language courses offered by the department:

• TURK 1330 - Elementary Turkish through TV Series I
• TURK 1331 - Elementary Turkish through TV Series II
• TURK 1332 - Intermediate Turkish I
• TURK 2332 - Intermediate Turkish II

Akkadian

Knowledge of this language is considered crucial both for preparing undergraduates for graduate study and for preparing our graduate students for research projects in this language.

Akkadian was the major Semitic language of ancient Mesopotamia. It was written in the cuneiform script, which was also used to write Sumerian, Elamite, Hurrian and Hittite. Akkadian is attested in writing from the mid-third millennium BCE until the early first millennium CE, and during this long span of time it became the vehicle for literature and scholarship as well as for practical record-keeping, legal documents, correspondence and public inscriptions. The Akkadian language and the cuneiform script were adopted as the international medium of written communication throughout the ancient Near East, from Iran to Egypt, during the second millennium BCE.

Contact Christoper M. Monroe for more information about Akkadian courses offered at Cornell.

Akkadian courses offered by the department:

• AKKAD 1410/6410- Akkadian Language I: Code of Hammurabi
• AKKAD 1411/6411 - Elementary Akkadian II: Historical and Literary Texts

Biblical Hebrew

Biblical Hebrew is the language in which the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) was originally written, before its translation into Greek and later Latin and other languages of the diaspora.  Reading the Bible in Hebrew provides students with insight into the cultural, social and political world of ancient Israel in a way that is impossible when reading texts in translation.  Students gain a deeper understanding of who the Israelites were, what God or gods they worshiped, how they worshiped, how their rituals developed, who their closest neighbors were and how they conceived of their enemies.  As an ancient language, biblical Hebrew consists of words that are themselves artifacts.  When considered in their ancient Near Eastern linguistic context they bring the ancient past into the present, and the Bible comes into focus not just as a foundational document in Western culture, but as an unparalleled literary achievement of the ancient Near East.

Biblical Hebrew courses offered by the department:

• HEBRW 1110 - Beginning Biblical Hebrew
• HEBRW 4102 - Topics in Biblical Hebrew Prose
• HEBRW 6102 - Topics in Biblical Hebrew Prose

Contact Lauren Monroe for more information about Biblical Hebrew. 

Hieroglyphic Egyptian

Ancient Egyptians spoke an Afro-Asiatic language that is related to Semitic languages such as Arabic and Hebrew, and North African languages such as Berber and Ethiopic. It has been a dead language since the 11th century CE, replaced by Arabic starting in the 7th century CE.

The written word of the Ancient Egypt, however, has survived. For over two thousand years, from the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2100 BCE) into the Roman era, Egyptian monuments were inscribed with hieroglyphs of the Middle Egyptian writing system. This is the ‘classic’ form of the language in which were composed The Story of Sinuhe, The Eloquent Peasant and other works of diverse themes addressing history, cultic and erotic devotion, satire, biography and wisdom.

The first of two courses in Ancient Egyptian introduces students to the script, phonetics and structure of Middle Egyptian. Working with excerpts from actual ancient Egyptian texts, students learn to use a hieroglyphic sign list and dictionary, and transliterate hieroglyphs into a standardized form that facilitates study of grammar and syntax. This prepares students for the more advanced verbal forms and fuller texts studied in Ancient Egyptian II. Together, these two courses prepare students sufficiently to interpret Middle Egyptian compositions or interpret inscribed Egyptian monuments and artifacts. It also forms a basis for careers in Egyptology that might include studying other Egyptian writing systems such as Hieratic or Demotic.

Throughout these linguistic courses, we also use ancient texts as windows onto the dynamic social lives of the Egyptians, a people whose contributions to the Near East and world heritage is very much alive.

Contact Caitlin Barrett (classics), and Christopher Monroe (near eastern studies) for more information about Hieroglyphic Egyptian classes offered at Cornell.

Hieroglyphic Egyptian courses offered by the department:

• HIERO 1450 - Ancient Egyptian I: Introduction to Middle Egyptian Hieroglyphs
• HIERO 1451 - Ancient Egyptian II: Introduction to Middle Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Sumerian

Sumerian is the language of ancient Sumer, which means that it was spoken in southern Mesopotamia from c. 3200-2000.  It was written in the cuneiform script and it’s the first identifiable language that human beings ever wrote down.  In fact, most Sumerologists agree that writing was invented specifically for the Sumerian language.  Knowledge of Sumerian is of prime importance for reconstructing all aspects of Mesopotamian Civilization because its study carried on long after the language ceased to be spoken and because of the great breadth of documentation written in the language. Sumerian is not genetically related to any other known language, which is one reason why the language is not very well understood.  The modern field of Sumerology was one of the first to reach out to the field of Linguistics and to adopt the power of computers and digital technology to study language. 

Sumerian courses offered by the department:

• SUMER 3661/6661 - Sumerian Language and Culture I
• SUMER 3662/6662 - Sumerian Language and Culture II

Language Resource Center

The Language Resource Center hosts conversation hours in many languages, some in collaboration with the Language House. These are led by speakers of the target language and offer an opportunity to use a language you are learning, outside of class, in an informal, low-pressure atmosphere.

Office of Global Learning

Cornell offers opportunities for students to study abroad in several countries in the Middle Eastern region. In Jordan, study Modern Standard Arabic. In Israel, study Civil or Mechanical Engineering in English at the Technion in Haifa or study and live in the vibrant city of Tel Aviv while taking classes in English improving your Hebrew.

Language House

On campus, Cornell students can live in the Language House and participate in cultural activities and language-specific weekly meals in Arabic and other languages.

Student Organizations

There are many undergraduate student organizations on campus that sponsor language and cultural activities throughout the school year.

For example:

• Persian Students Organization
• Arab Student Association
• Cornell Hillel
• Cornell Undergraduate Turkish Student Association
• Cornell University Klezmer Ensemble
• Sephardi & Mizrahi Student Council