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 world view known as humanism. But scholars in England doubted the ability of English to handle the new learning associated with this cultural movement. They felt that English was ‘rude’ and ‘rusty,’ and could only convey the new ideas and concepts by borrowing words from Greek and Latin. In this episode, we examine how the Renaissance fundamentally changed the English language by expanding its vocabulary and by giving it a new register of scholarly and technical synonyms. 

TRANSCRIPT: EPISODE 147

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 called Arawakan. As the Europeans encountered the native culture of the region, several Arawakan words passed into Spanish and then into English. In this episode, we look at what happened when these separate ecosystems began to mix together in the late 1400s.

TRANSCRIPT: EPISODE 146

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 began to think of the ocean as an international highway rather than a barrier to travel. We also examine the naval accounts of Henry VII’s ships to reveal a variety of words recorded for the first time in English.

TRANSCRIPT: EPISODE 145

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 various groups of animals and people.  This was also a period when the Plantagenet era came to an end, and the first Tudor monarch seized the throne.  In this episode, we examine those linguistic and historical developments.

TRANSCRIPT: EPISODE 144

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 Modern English and contemporary English.

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 the way words are spelled in Modern English. 

TRANSCRIPT: EPISODE 143

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 spelled and how the merger of those sounds produced many homonyms within Modern English.

TRANSCRIPT: EPISODE 142

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 transition from Middle English to Modern English. In this episode, we explore the specific changes that took place in the upper front part of the mouth. We also examine the impact of those changes on Modern English spellings.

TRANSCRIPT: EPISODE 141

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 and some of which are a combination of vowel sounds called diphthongs. In this episode, we explore the pure vowel sounds used in Modern English, and we examine how slight changes in the vowel sounds contribute to accent differences within Modern English.

TRANSCRIPT: EPISODE 140

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 the priorities and concerns of a businessman, not those of a linguist or scholar. In this episode, we explore Caxton’s contribution to the history of English, and we examine the impact of the printing press on the development of the English language.

TRANSCRIPT: EPISODE 139