语言学系是美国历史最悠久，最杰出的语言学课程之一。早在1930年代，哈佛就开始提供“比较语言学”的更高学位，当时称为历史语言学。到1941年，哈佛大学拥有完整的比较语言学系，十年后成为语言学系。随着转换生成语法的出现，该系在1960年代经历了快速的发展。我们成为常春藤联盟中第一个按照生成路线组织其计划的语言学部门，同时也保持了我们在历史语言学上的传统实力。现在，与那时一样，该部门建立了多元化的团结文化。我们的学生和教师来自许多不同的背景，并且代表着广泛的兴趣，从纯粹的理论到类型学，历史和实验。我们分享的是
The Department of Linguistics is home to one of the oldest and most distinguished linguistics programs in the United States. Harvard began offering higher degrees in ''comparative philology,'' as historical linguistics was then called, as early as the 1930s. By 1941, Harvard had a full-fledged Department of Comparative Philology, which became the Department of Linguistics a decade later. The department experienced rapid growth in the 1960s, with the advent of transformational-generative grammar. We became the first linguistics department in the Ivy League to organize its program along generative lines, while also maintaining our traditional strength in historical linguistics. Now, as then, the department fosters a culture of unity in diversity. Our students and faculty come from many different backgrounds and represent a wide range of interests, from purely theoretical to typological, historical, and experimental. What we share is a commitment to empirically grounded research and a respect for the rich traditions of the field. The study of linguistics at Harvard draws much of its strength from the unique range and depth of the University's offerings in related fields, especially ancient and modern languages and the growing Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative. Students are encouraged to take advantage of the full spectrum of Harvard's resources in planning their schedules, they are also free to cross-register for linguistics and linguistics-related courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While all PhD candidates are expected to acquire a solid background in contemporary linguistic theory, the department places great emphasis on the inseparability of good theoretical work and detailed empirical research, and on the interrelatedness of diachronic and synchronic approaches to the study of linguistic phenomena. Since the department is relatively small, discussion among faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates is ongoing and informal. Special workshops funded by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, together with frequent departmentally sponsored lectures and seminars, bring an unusually large number of outside speakers to Harvard every year. Widener Library contains a matchless linguistic and philological collection, supplemented by a special non-circulating collection accessible only to linguistics students and faculty.