Welcome to the History of English Podcast, a podcast about the history of the English language.

This is Episode 126, a new turn of phrase.

In this episode, we're going to turn our attention back to Jeffrey Chaucer, as we explore

the middle part of his career leading up to the Canthbury Tales.

Chaucer was a prolific writer, but he also continued to be a civil servant, so he had to

balance his literary career with his actual day job.

His writings during this period also reveal several new developments that were taking place

within the English language, specifically within the grammar and syntax of the language.

As we'll see, many new grammatical phrases were coming into existence in the late 1300s,

and Chaucer's writings reflect those changes.

This part of the reason why his poetry is so accessible to modern readers.

So this time, we'll examine the man who is sometimes called the father of English literature,

and we'll see how that literature anticipated the transition from middle English into modern

English.

But before we begin, let me remind you that the website for the podcast is historyofenglishpodcast.com,

and you can sign up to support the podcast and get bonus episodes and transcripts at patreon.com

slash historyofenglish.

Now this time, we're going to turn our attention back to Jeffrey Chaucer.

He is probably the most well-known English writer before the time of Shakespeare, and for

many people he may be the only English writer they know from this earlier period.

There's no doubt that Chaucer was an incredibly gifted poet and writer, but there's also

another reason why so many people still read the Canthbury Tales.

...