Welcome to the first episode of the History of English Podcast.

My name is Kevin Stroud, your host for this podcast which will explore the history of the

English language.

In this introductory episode, I want to lay the groundwork for the series of episodes

which will follow.

Let me begin by noting that this is ultimately a history podcast.

The topic happens to be English, but this is not a podcast about the technical aspects

of English.

It's not my goal or intention to teach anyone proper grammar or pronunciation.

Instead, this is a podcast about the history of the language.

And you can't separate the history of the language from the history of those who spoke

the language.

So this is really the story of the English language from its earliest ancestor, the

Indo-European language spoken in Eastern Europe over 4,000 years ago, to its current status

as the closest thing we have to a modern international language.

And it's the story of the people, places, and events which shaped the language into

what it's become today.

It's also the story of the words which we used today and how those words came into our

language.

And speaking of the language we have today, it's a language that's emerged from an obscure

Germanic dialect spoken in Northern Europe about 2,000 years ago to one of the most commonly

spoken languages in the world.

...