Kevin Stroud Talks the History of English

Kevin Stroud, creator and voice of the History of English podcast, joins David and Sarah ...

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Kevin Stroud, creator and voice of the History of English podcast, joins David and Sarah for an exciting deep dive into the history of the English language and the roots of legalese. Stroud traces the complex history of Old English, Old Norse, French, and Latin words within the American legal system, and details the story behind the first written Old English code of law. Plus: What roles do poetry and alliteration play in the court? And why does language evolve so much over time?

Show Notes:

–History of English podcast

–Law of Æthelberht

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Comments (71)
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  1. William McIntosh MD

    Thanks Sarah, thanks a lot! I have job, and a wife, and kids, and dogs and a yard to mow, and now I have 200 hours of unbudgeted podcast time for the History of English. I hope you are happy now.

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      Sarah Isgur vertical-nib Author

      Same. Same.

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    Matt Y.

    Heresy! I still use farther.
    /jk this is a fun episode.

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  3. Pat Ketsche

    I wanted to say thank you for introducing me to Kevin Stroud. I'm now addicted to his podcast about the History of English.

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  4. Chris Taylor

    Super interesting podcast. How can you not love these people.... Sarah and David are some of the best humans on the planet and we love this staff on both AO and The Dispatch podcast. Also, the history here is fascinating, which reminded me of a podcast that is a must listen for Sarah - History That Doesn't Such by Prof. Greg Jackson.

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  5. Bret & Julie Rogers

    For anyone who especially enjoyed the part about the ways English pronunciation changed in America, I highly recommend Erik Singer's YouTube series on American accents:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1KP4ztKK0A

    His other videos on accuracy (or inaccuracy) of actors/actresses doing accents on TV and in films are excellent as well -- absolutely fascinating to me.

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  6. Sharon Smith

    Really loved this podcast. Reminded me of my college English class where we read Chaucer in Middle English. I had this great awakening because it was like listening to my grandmother and her (my) people from back in the mountains of East Tennessee and Western Kentucky.

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  7. Matthew

    A little surprised the British history podcast didn't come up in the comments that I saw. It can be a very interesting podcast but is also VERY granular and slow moving at times. But that is kind of what I like about it. For reference it has been running over 10 years almost 400 episodes and is just to the Norman invasion.

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  8. Coleman

    Are we going to get a Yellowstone Caldera episode for Nerd August? I know it was mentioned maybe last year, but don't know if it ended up happening and I just missed it.

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    Dana Garvey

    I love the nerdy August podcasts, and this one went to 11! I went immediately from it to the History of English podcast. All I could think of when Sarah started quoting Chaucer was that episode of Big Bang Theory when Amy Farrah Fowler quotes Chaucer. I laughed out loud. Thanks so much! keep up the great work.

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  10. Airish

    Fascinating podcast, but I was a little disappointed that it didn't delve into all the interesting and perplexing "law French" terms I had to learn in law school. I was always curious about how and when all these archaic French terms crept into the law and why. These include words like chattel, jury (including grand and petit) and bailiff. A number of these terms aren't comprehensible to an actual French person (except maybe David).

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