The History of English Podcast
A chronological history of the English language examined through the lens of historical events that shaped the development and spread of the language from the Eurasian steppe to the entire world.
Episodes (50)
Episode 185: Spelling Says a Lot (Part 2)
In the second part of our look at the sound of English in the early 1600s, we continue to explore the letters of the alphabet and the sounds that each letter represents. We explore the letters K...
Episode 184: Spelling Says a Lot (Part 1)
Over the course of the 1500s, English spelling started to become standardized, but the pronunciation of the language continued to change. By the early 1600s, English scholars noticed that spellings no...
Episode 183: The Fabric of Our Lives
In the early 1600s, cotton fabrics made in India were in high demand throughout Asia and Africa. When the English and Dutch arrived in India and Japan, they realized how popular the fabric was, and...
Episode 182: World of Confusion
In the early 1600s, English began to spread around the world as speakers searched for new trading partners and new places to settle. Through that process, English become an international language, but...
Episode 181: Heaven and Earth
The invention of the telescope in the early 1600s laid the foundation for the scientific revolution, but it also disrupted the traditional view of the universe and led to a conflict with the Catholic...
Episode 180: English on the Move
In the first decade of the 1600s, English speakers were on the move as they established the first permanent English settlement in North America. They also began a steady a migration to northern...
Episode 179: Defining Moments
In the early 1600s, several landmark events shaped the history of England and determined how and where the English language would be spoken in the centuries that followed. The period from 1602-1605...
Episode 178: Much Ado About Hamlet
In the first couple of years of the 1600s, several new Shakespeare plays appeared. Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It were recorded in the Stationer's Register, and a third play called The...
Episode 177: Dressed for Success
In this episode, we look at clothing and fashion in the Elizabethan era, and we examine the connection between clothing, custom and language. We also examine Shakespeare's plays about the lives of...
Episode 176: All the World’s a Playhouse
Theaters were an important part of cultural life in Elizabethan England, and they contributed many words to the English language. Those words joined thousands of other words that were pouring into...
Episode 175: The English of Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is one of William Shakespeare's most popular plays and one of the most popular plays ever written. In this episode, we examine the language of the play to see how it reflects the...
Episode 174: Speak and Spell
English spelling largely reflects the state of the language in the late 1500s. In this episode, we look at one of the first English spelling books, and we explore several plays by William Shakespeare...
Episode 173: Fooling Around
In this episode, we look at the development of English comedy in the early modern era. We examine some of William Shakespeare’s early comedies, and we also distinguish Shakespearean comedy from other...
Episode 172: Succession
In this episode, we explore the concept of a successful succession. During the early 1590s, France was divided by a bitter conflict over the succession of Henry of Navarre to the French throne....
Episode 171: Shakespeare’s English (featuring Ben Crystal)
In this episode, we turn our attention to the wordcraft of William Shakespeare. Today, many people have mixed opinions about his plays and poems. They know that he is widely regarded as the greatest...
Episode 170: Printers, Plague and Poets
In this episode, we examine the connection between poetry and plague in the early 1590s. An outbreak of the recurring sickness contributed to Shakespeare’s early career as a poet, and that poetry...
Episode 169: Shakespeare Documented
William Shakespeare is widely considered to be the most important writer in the history of the English language, but relatively little is known about his personal life. The desire to know more about...
Episode 168: Witches, Demons and Fairies
In this episode, we explore the Elizabethan fascination with witchcraft and mysterious creatures like fairies and demons. Those subjects feature prominently in the literature of the period, and they...
Episode 167: The Rhythm of English
All languages have their own rhythm and cadence, and English is no exception. That rhythm has actually shaped the language over time. It contributed to the structure of English poetry, and during the...
Bonus Episode: Rise and Fall of the Classic Movie Accent
In this episode from the Patreon archives, we examine the accent used by actors and actresses in very old movies. We look at the origin of that accent and examine why it was adopted by the film...
Episode 166: The Arte of Warre
In 1588, the Spanish Armada set sail for England in an attempt to depose Elizabeth I and replace her with a Spanish princess. In this episode, we examine how the English victory secured the status of...
Episode 165: Glamorous Grammar
William Bullokar composed the first formal grammar of the English language in 1586. Prior to that point, the concept of grammar had been largely restricted to Latin. Bullokar's work extended the...
Episode 164: Somewhere in the Middle
Throughout her long reign, Queen Elizabeth I was faced with many difficult decisions, and she often chose a middle path when she could. In this episode, we explore the middle paths taken during her...
Episode 163: An Elementary Education
By the second half of the Elizabethan period, the perception of English had changed significantly in England. It was increasingly perceived as a sophisticated language capable of matching the...
Episode 162: The Pirate Queen
In the 1570s, Francis Drake plundered Spanish ships throughout the New World with the private permission of Elizabeth I. His actions marked the first direct challenge to Spanish naval supremacy in the...
Episode 161: Y U and I Have a Problem
In this episode, we explore the complicated history of the letters Y, U and I, and we examine how they gave birth to the letters W, V and J. We also look at the Gothic script of the Middle Ages which...
Episode 160: Approximant-ly English
In this episode, we explore the sounds represented by the letters L and R. Linguists refer to these sounds as 'approximants,' and they are some of the most challenging sounds in the English language....
Episode 159: Elizabethan Voices
In 1569, an English scholar named John Hart published a manuscript called 'An Orthographie.' The text argued for a phonetic spelling system, and it provided one of the earliest detailed descriptions...
Episode 158: Planting Seeds
In the mid-1500s, England attempted to expand its influence in Ireland by establishing plantations there. This same process would soon be applied to North America. In this episode, we explore those...
Episode 157: Highlands, Lowlands and Netherlands
During the first decade of the reign of Elizabeth I, Protestants in Scotland and the Netherlands rebelled against the Catholic authorities who controlled those countries. Those rebellions were...
Episode 156: Beggars, Cheats and Thieves
In the 1500s, England saw a significant rise in the number of beggars and vagabonds. Those who couldn't survive by begging often turned to thievery, gambling and fraud. By the mid-1500s, books and...
Episode 155: Back to Basics
In the 1553, Mary Tudor became the first queen to rule England as the head of the government. She promptly turned back the clock on the religious reforms that had taken place over the prior few years....
Episode 154: English Equality
By the mid-1500s, scholars were becoming more confident in the ability of English to express sophisticated ideas and concepts associated with classical learning. Writers began to use English beside...
Episode 153: Zombie Letters
In early Modern English, writers and printers began to revise the spelling of many English words to reflect their etymological origins. Old letters were revived from the dead to reflect sounds that...
Episode 152: As the Saying Goes
John Heywood was a playwright and poet who made two important contributions to the history of English. He was a key figure in the emergence of modern English drama which led directly to William...
Episode 151: Sick to Death
During the reign of Henry VIII, medical books and herbals proved to be some of the most popular publications in England. The people of England wanted medical books that they could read in the own...
Episode 150: A Capital Offense
In the 1530s, Henry VIII declared himself to be the 'Supreme Head' of the Church of England, and he demanded absolute loyalty from his subjects. Those who crossed him risked the loss of their...
Episode 149: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
In the years following Martin Luther's protest against the Catholic Church, small fractures soon turned into a major rift. The Protestant Reformation led to the break-up of the Western Church....
Episode 148: A Marital Union
In the early 1500s, a series of marriages between European royal families re-shaped the face of Europe and brought together separate regions under the leadership of a single ruler. This led to...
Episode 147: A Rude and Rusty Language
The European Renaissance provided a transition to the early modern era by looking back to the culture of classical Greece and Rome. It led to a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Latin and a new...
Episode 146: A Brand New World
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. The voyage marked the beginning of the European discovery of the Americas. Columbus encountered natives in the Caribbean who spoke a Native American dialect...
Episode 145: A Sea Change for Europe
The period of European exploration and discovery began in the 1400s as part of an effort to find new trading routes to Africa and Asia. In this episode, we look at how European sailors and merchants...
Episode 144: A Murder of Crows and Princes
In the second half of the 1400s, there is written evidence of word play and new word formations within English. These new terms included words for the sounds made by animals and collective nouns for...
Bonus Episode: Chaucer’s Purse and the Great Vowel Shift
In this bonus episode of the regular podcast, we explore the effects of the Great Vowel Shift on the pronunciation of English by reading Geoffrey Chaucer's last known poem in Middle English, early...
Episode 143: The Great Vowel Shift (Part 3)
In this final episode about the sound changes associated with the Great Vowel Shift, we explore the vowel shifts that took place in the back of the mouth. We also explore how these changes impacted...
Episode 142: The Great Vowel Shift (Part 2)
In this second part of our look at the Great Vowel Shift, we explore the movement of the vowel sounds located in the bottom front part of the mouth. We also examine how these sounds were traditionally...
Episode 141: The Great Vowel Shift (Part 1)
The term 'Great Vowel Shift' was coined in the early 1900s by the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen to describe a systematic change in the long vowel sounds of English. The changes help to mark the...
Episode 140: You Say ‘To-may-to’
Vowel sounds are a key feature of every language, but the actual vowel sounds vary from one language to another. The English language contains about twenty vowel sounds, some of which are pure vowels...
Episode 139: The Business of Printing
William Caxton introduced the mass production of books to England in the 1470s. He was also the first person to print books in the English language via the printing press. Caxton's publications reveal...
Episode 138: Family Matters
In the 1400s, rising literacy rates and access to cheap paper combined to produce the first collections of personal letters in the English language. One of the earliest letter collections was...
About this Podcast
Language
en-US
Categories
History