Podcast Episodes
Back to Search
Singular They: From Middle English to Modern Identity
Episode 246
This episode traces the hidden history of singular ’they’, from its pragmatic use in Chaucer’s Middle‑English manuscripts and court records, through …
21 hours ago
When Digital Corpora Rewrite History: The OED’s Ever‑Shifting Earliest Citations
Episode 245
In this episode we dive into how digital corpora like COHA, Early English Books Online, and Google Ngram Viewer are constantly pushing back the earli…
22 hours ago
Roman to Arabic: How Numbers Rewrote English
Episode 244
Explore the journey from Roman numerals to Arabic numerals and how this shift reshaped English spelling, commerce, and everyday calculations across c…
22 hours ago
Donation to Donate: A Back‑Formation Tale of Modern English
Episode 243
Explore how the 19th‑century back‑formation from the noun donation to the verb donate illustrates morphological economy, lexicographic acceptance, an…
22 hours ago
Spell: From Speech to Sorcery – The Evolving Power of One Word
Episode 242
This episode traces the word ‘spell’ from Old English play‑texts to modern digital incantations. It uncovers how the term shifted between speaking, w…
22 hours ago
Emoji: From Japanese Picture Characters to Global Emoticons
Episode 241
In this episode we trace the word ‘emoji’ from its literal roots in Japanese meaning “picture character” through its accidental association with emot…
23 hours ago
The H‑Dropping Debate: From Pronunciation to Social Status
Episode 240
This episode unpacks the history of h-dropping in English, tracing its roots from Old English through the Norman Conquest and into modern dialects. W…
23 hours ago
The Viking Legacy of Yorkshire English
Episode 239
This episode explores how the Norse settlers who arrived in northern England during the Viking Age left a lasting imprint on the Yorkshire dialect. W…
23 hours ago
Ampersand: From Letter to Punctuation—The Surprising History of a Symbol in English
Episode 238
In this episode we trace the ampersand’s journey from its Latin roots as a ligature for "et" to its brief status as a 27th alphabet letter in Victori…
1 day ago
How Back‑Formations Like ‘Edit’ Rewrote Modern English
Episode 237
Explore the quirky process of back‑formation that turned the noun editor into the verb edit, and how this linguistic trick reflects deeper patterns o…
1 day ago