Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share The History of the English Language Podcast
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
The History of the English Language Podcast
The History of the English Language Podcast episodes
- Rebracketing in English: How Articles Rewrite Words
Rebracketing is the process by which speakers shift article boundaries in words—turning “a napron” into “an apron,” “a nick name” into “nickname,” and even creating new suffixes like burger. In this episode we trace how prosody, printing presses, dictionaries, and digital algorithms have shaped and recorded these changes over centuries.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
14 min - Hashtag Before Twitter: From Telegraph Number Sign to Digital Lexicon
From the telegraph era to the digital age, this episode follows the journey of the hash symbol that became the hashtag, exploring its origins as a number sign, its adoption in early computing and online communities, and its cultural impact on politics and marketing. We’ll see how one glyph transformed from a shorthand for 'number' into a global linguistic marker used by millions every day.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
16 min - The Norman Conquest: How 1066 Brought French Into English
Explore how William the Conqueror’s arrival reshaped English grammar, vocabulary, and spelling, turning it into a linguistic hybrid that would later fuel global influence. The episode traces the tri‑lingual society of medieval England and its lasting legacy.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
16 min - Reconstructing Proto‑Languages: The Detective Work Behind English’s Ancestry
Josh Linsk takes listeners through the comparative and internal reconstruction techniques that let linguists recover sounds, meanings, and histories from languages with no written records—starting with Proto‑Indo‑European and tracing the roots of modern English. He also explores how new AI tools are reshaping the field.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
20 min - From Scribe to Social Media: Tracing the Evolution of English Name Spellings
Explore how English spelling of personal names has transformed from medieval manuscripts, through printing and dictionary standardization, to today’s digital usernames—examining key figures like Samuel Johnson, John Hart, and the ongoing tension between tradition and technology.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
17 min - From Lectio to TED Talks: Tracing the Evolution of English Lectures
Explore how a Latin reading practice gave rise to the modern lecture, from medieval universities through Caxton’s printing press to today’s digital classrooms. The episode uncovers the linguistic shifts that turned lectio into a cultural institution for knowledge transfer.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
21 min - Caxton’s Dialect Dilemma: How London Standardized Printed English
In 1476 William Caxton faced a patchwork of English dialects when he opened the first press in London. This episode traces how his choice of the Chancery Standard shaped spelling, printing, and later dictionaries—showing that technology and commerce can decide what language looks like for centuries.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
19 min - The Truth About English Word Myths: From Posh to Loans to the Black Death
In this episode we untangle the science behind false etymologies, trace how a Germanic loanword like 'loan' evolved in finance, and explore how the 14th‑century Black Death reshaped English grammar and vocabulary.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
15 min - Viking Roots: How Norse Place‑Names Map England's Language History
Explore how the suffixes –by, –thorpe, and –thwaite in English place names trace Viking settlement patterns across England, revealing the linguistic footprint of the Danelaw. This episode unpacks the origins, spread, and lasting influence of Norse toponyms on modern English identity.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
20 min - Google Became a Verb: Trademarks, Language, and Digital Speed
Explore how the brand name Google transformed into an everyday verb, the legal battles over genericide, and what this rapid linguistic shift reveals about trademark law, dictionary inclusion, and the acceleration of language in the digital age.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
16 min
About The History of the English Language Podcast
From the publisher's feed
The History of the English Language Podcast, hosted by Josh Linsk, explores how English developed from its earliest roots into one of the world’s most widely spoken languages. Each episode traces the people, migrations, invasions, cultures, technologies, and historical events that shaped English vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, spelling, and everyday speech.
The podcast follows the language through Old English, the Anglo-Saxon period, Viking influence, the Norman Conquest, Middle English, the Great Vowel Shift, Early Modern English, Shakespeare, the printing press, colonial expansion, American English, and the rise of English as a global language. Along the way, it examines where words came from, why meanings changed, how accents developed, and how English absorbed influences from Latin, French, Norse, Greek, and many other languages.
From ancient word origins to slang, dictionaries, dialects, literature, pronunciation, and modern language change, The History of the English Language Podcast brings together linguistics, history, etymology, culture, and the evolution of English for anyone fascinated by how the language became what it is today.