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History

The History of the English Language Podcast

by History Podcasts & Josh Linsk

Today: #145 in History, India on our combined chart.

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Position on the History, India combined chart over the last 7 days. Toggle platforms to compare their positions. Lower rank numbers are better.

#98#112#127#141#155Chart rankOct 21Oct 22#145
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DateCombined RankApple Podcasts
Oct 22#145#145
Oct 21#108#107

Latest episodes

  • The Speed of Word Diffusion: From Manuscripts to Memes

    October 4, 2026 · 16 min

    This episode traces the journey of English words from solitary vellum copies in medieval monasteries to instant viral memes on social media. We examine how printing presses, telegraphs, radio, television, and the internet each accelerated…

  • Why English Still Feels Germanic: Core Grammar vs Borrowed Lexicon

    October 4, 2026 · 17 min

    Explore how the skeleton of modern English—its pronouns, numbers, and basic verbs—remains rooted in Proto‑Germanic even as French, Latin, and other languages have flooded its vocabulary. The episode unpacks why inherited grammatical…

  • The Volunteer Reading Army: Frederick Furnivall and the Birth of the OED

    October 4, 2026 · 14 min

    From a rag‑tag army of pub‑goers and train‑station clerks to the massive, collaborative project that birthed the Oxford English Dictionary, this episode traces how ordinary readers in Victorian England helped shape modern lexicography. It…

  • From Saxon Yardsticks to Imperial Units: The Story of English Measurement

    October 4, 2026 · 18 min

    This episode traces how the humble yardstick of medieval England evolved into a formally measured unit that still governs construction, law, and commerce today. From royal standardizations and the 1824 Weights and Measures Act to…

  • From Boston Print to Global Meme: The Secret History of “OK”

    October 4, 2026 · 17 min

    Explore how a playful misspelling in an 1839 Boston newspaper sparked the worldwide assent marker ‘OK’. From political slogans and OED entries to internet memes, we trace its journey across continents and centuries. Learn more about your…

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  • From Tea to TikTok: The Journey of Chinese Loanwords into English

    October 4, 2026 · 17 min

    This episode traces how Chinese words entered English—from early trading terms like tea and chopsticks, through philosophical concepts such as Tao and yin‑yang, to contemporary tech brands WeChat and TikTok—highlighting the cultural…

  • Pin‑Pen Merger: How Southern Vowels Merge and Shape American English

    October 4, 2026 · 14 min

    Explore how a subtle vowel change in the American South—the pin‑pen merger—has quietly reshaped pronunciation across generations and geographies. We trace its phonological roots, geographic boundaries, and the social forces that carry it…

  • The Queen’s Etymology: From Old English *cwen* to Modern Royalty

    October 4, 2026 · 19 min

    Explore how the word queen evolved from its Proto‑Germanic ancestor cwen, survived Norman French influence, and weathered centuries of phonological change to remain a staple of modern English. This episode traces the linguistic journey and…

  • The Republic in English: From Roman Roots to American Foundations

    October 4, 2026 · 15 min

    We trace how the Latin term ‘res publica’ entered English, its journey through Renaissance humanism, and its adoption by thinkers like Hobbes and Milton—showing how it foreshadowed the political vocabulary of the United States. The episode…

  • From Botany Bay to the Outback: The Birth of Australian English

    October 4, 2026 · 16 min

    This episode traces how a ragtag crew of convicts and free settlers stitched together a patchwork of British dialects into what we now call Australian English, exploring indigenous loanwords, phonological shifts, printing press influence…

  • Rebracketing in English: How Articles Rewrite Words

    October 4, 2026 · 14 min

    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…

  • Hashtag Before Twitter: From Telegraph Number Sign to Digital Lexicon

    October 4, 2026 · 16 min

    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…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

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.