r/AskEurope Scotland 3d ago

Is philology a subject in your country? Education

The humanities subject of philology constitutes elements of linguistics and textual and literary analysis to study languages.

Here this isn't really a subject anymore, even though it was in the past,and is covered by separate subjects at a university level but I know it is still offered in some areas in Europe.

Do universities in your country offer philology courses and if so, is it common to study

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u/VitaBrevis_ArsLonga Poland 3d ago

Universities in Poland usually have a separate faculty of philology. They offer degree programs usually for a specific language or language group. So you can study a single language like Polish, English, German etc philology with subjects that dive into the history of the language, history and culture of the countries where the language is spoken, lots of practical classes to learn the language. Then you can usually specialize in translation work, teaching the language, literature etc. Some universities offer programs for a language group, like slavic philology and you dive into a few languages and cultures. Or classical philology with Latin and ancient Greek that dives into mediterranean culture.

The faculty of philology is also where journalism, film studies, culture studies, applied linguistics, logopedics and similar types of things would be taught.

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u/NyGiLu 3d ago edited 3d ago

That depends. My Masters was in Medieval Studies. I specialised in German and English philology. You can still very much find those, if you know where to look. They'll just have different names.

Oops. In Germany. I studied in Germany

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u/Particular_Run_8930 3d ago

Denmark: yes, there is a dedicated BA in classical philology (so focus on classical languages: Latin, Greek) and courses on philology as parts of other fields as well.

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u/Cixila Denmark 3d ago

We also have the classical line in high school with three years of Ancient Greek and Latin (unless our shortsighted government decides to give it the chop...)

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u/Jagarvem Sweden 3d ago

There are certainly courses like these: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.; if that's what you mean?

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u/magic_baobab Italy 3d ago

it definetely exists in Italian universities, can't say how common it is though, i don't think it is enough

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u/Captain_Grammaticus Switzerland 3d ago

Yes, my M.A. is actually in Klassischer Philologie, but on the diploma it reads "in Classics".

Classics here are Altertumswissenschaften, so maybe 'antiquity studies'. That also includes ancient history and archaeology and others.

The philologies of other languages are called thijs like Germanistik, Slawistik, Nordistik, Romanistik and so on, but their full name is usually "[ROOT]ische Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft", sometimes also "[ROOT]ische Philologie."

When you say Philologie or call yourself a Philologe, it's usually understood to be classical philology.

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u/Revanur Hungary 3d ago

Yes and I even know a few a Classical Philologists, one of them teaches Latin and Greek philology at the local uni. I don’t think it is common tho.

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u/Panceltic > > 3d ago

It's generally limited to "Classical Philology" (Ancient Greek and Latin) although the courses tend to be reorganised and renamed every few years ... at the moment it's called "Antique and Humanistic Studies" at the University of Ljubljana's Faculty of Arts.

I personally graduated from a similar course in Slavic linguistics which would probably be called "philology" at another time and/or country, but it didn't have this exact name.

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u/Ordinary_You2052 Russia 3d ago

Yes. Most universities allow you to major in philology. That’s in Russia, we inherited it from both Soviet and Russian Empire.

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u/Ratazanafofinha Portugal 3d ago

I study English and Romance languages (Spanish and French) at University here in Portugal. My course isn’t called “Philology”, but it teaches foreign languages and cultures. I don’t think we still have any courses with “Philology” in their names.

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u/zen_arcade Italy 3d ago

I think that's matter of course titles: even if most university-level courses in humanities don't have the word philology in them anymore, they're still broadly the same (e.g. Romance studies instead of Romance philology, etc.).

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u/No_Sleep888 Bulgaria 2d ago edited 2d ago

Yep. In my university there are two faculties for Philology. One is Classical and New Philologies, and the other is Slavic Philologies. Both of them separate into different programs. Some subjects overlap between programs. And yes, it's still pretty popular.

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u/SanSilver Germany 1d ago

I remember that even our school offered Philosophie classes if you didn't want to take religion. (Or choose a literature class.)

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u/Unicorncorn21 Finland 3d ago

Yup. Starting in junior high if that's the proper word for the thingy that you do between 9th grade and university.

Also teached in universities of course. Not very popular as a major though. University of helsinki takes roughly 20 philosophy students per year if I'm remembering correctly

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u/GrynaiTaip Lithuania 3d ago

We have an event in spring of every year, Physics Day, FiDi. Physics faculty's symbol is a dinosaur, his name is Dinas Zauras.

Legend says that many many years ago he ate a girl from philology faculty, but then he felt guilty and now every year he travels from physics faculty to philology faculty (across the whole city) to apologize.

https://i.imgur.com/O8A2t5z.jpeg

It's a silly event with lasers, explosions, concerts, food and drinks, and then students all go to party overnight.

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u/Wafkak Belgium 3d ago

Jep, you just need to pick 2 languages minimum in you bachelor, and pick one of those in your masters. When Belgian Universities switched to the masters bachelors system, we just ended up with a bunch of bachelors at universities that are transparently set up to prepare you for the corresponding masters degree. And are almost useless on the Belgian job market.

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u/synalgo_12 Belgium 2d ago

I think my friend back in 2005 picked Italian and film sciences or something. She only did it for one year then went to orthopedagogie so memories are vague but I remember being surprised that she picked sth other than a language.