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The Spoken History of a Global Language
As we conclude our look at the 1630s, we explore the events leading to Civil War in England and the expansion of the English colonies along...
In this episode, we explore the first large-scale migration of English settlers to North America in the early 1600s. The settlers arrived in...
In this episode, we explore the influence of seafaring on the English language in the early 1600s. We also look at events in the latter half...
In this episode, we explore two important developments in North America. First, we examine the legendary story of the Pilgrims’ arriva...
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...
Over the course of the 1500s, English spelling started to become standardized, but the pronunciation of the language continued to change. By...
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...
In the early 1600s, English began to spread around the world as speakers searched for new trading partners and new places to settle. Through...
The invention of the telescope in the early 1600s laid the foundation for the scientific revolution, but it also disrupted the traditional v...
In the first decade of the 1600s, English speakers were on the move as they established the first permanent English settlement in North Amer...
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 first couple of years of the 1600s, several new Shakespeare plays appeared. Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It were recorded i...
In this episode, we look at clothing and fashion in the Elizabethan era, and we examine the connection between clothing, custom and language...
Theaters were an important part of cultural life in Elizabethan England, and they contributed many words to the English language. Those word...
Romeo and Juliet is one of William Shakespeare’s most popular plays and one of the most popular plays ever written. In this episode, w...
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...
In this episode, we look at the development of English comedy in the early modern era. We examine some of William Shakespeare’s early comedi...
In this episode, we explore the concept of a successful succession. During the early 1590s, France was divided by a bitter conflict over the...
In this episode, we turn our attention to the wordcraft of William Shakespeare. Today, many people have mixed opinions about his plays and p...
In this episode, we examine the connection between poetry and plague in the early 1590s. An outbreak of the recurring sickness contributed t...
William Shakespeare is widely considered to be the most important writer in the history of the English language, but relatively little is kn...
In this episode, we explore the Elizabethan fascination with witchcraft and mysterious creatures like fairies and demons. Those subjects fea...
All languages have their own rhythm and cadence, and English is no exception. That rhythm has actually shaped the language over time. It con...
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 t...
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 episod...
William Bullokar composed the first formal grammar of the English language in 1586. Prior to that point, the concept of grammar had been lar...
Throughout her long reign, Queen Elizabeth I was faced with many difficult decisions, and she often chose a middle path when she could. In t...
By the second half of the Elizabethan period, the perception of English had changed significantly in England. It was increasingly perceived...
In the 1570s, Francis Drake plundered Spanish ships throughout the New World with the private permission of Elizabeth I. His actions marked...
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....
In this episode, we explore the sounds represented by the letters L and R. Linguists refer to these sounds as ‘approximants,’ an...
In 1569, an English scholar named John Hart published a manuscript called ‘An Orthographie.’ The text argued for a phonetic spel...
In the mid-1500s, England attempted to expand its influence in Ireland by establishing plantations there. This same process would soon be ap...
During the first decade of the reign of Elizabeth I, Protestants in Scotland and the Netherlands rebelled against the Catholic authorities w...
In the 1500s, England saw a significant rise in the number of beggars and vagabonds. Those who couldn’t survive by begging often turne...
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 reli...
By the mid-1500s, scholars were becoming more confident in the ability of English to express sophisticated ideas and concepts associated wit...
In early Modern English, writers and printers began to revise the spelling of many English words to reflect their etymological origins. Old...
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...
During the reign of Henry VIII, medical books and herbals proved to be some of the most popular publications in England. The people of Engla...
In the 1530s, Henry VIII declared himself to be the ‘Supreme Head’ of the Church of England, and he demanded absolute loyalty fr...
In the years following Martin Luther’s protest against the Catholic Church, small fractures soon turned into a major rift. The Protest...
In the early 1500s, a series of marriages between European royal families re-shaped the face of Europe and brought together separate regions...
The European Renaissance provided a transition to the early modern era by looking back to the culture of classical Greece and Rome. It led t...
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. The voyage marked the beginning of the European discovery of the Americas. Columbus encountered nat...
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 t...
In the second half of the 1400s, there is written evidence of word play and new word formations within English. These new terms included wor...
In this bonus episode of the regular podcast, we explore the effects of the Great Vowel Shift on the pronunciation of English by reading Geo...
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...
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 th...