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

language.

This is episode 18, Keeping Time with the Romans.

The last time we looked at the emergence of the ancient Celts, who once dominated much

of Central and Western Europe.

And we looked at the defeat of those same Celts by the Romans in the region known as Gaul,

which is basically modern day France.

And the Latin dialect spoken in that region eventually evolved into an early form of

French, known as Old French.

And it was this version of French, which the Normans brought with them to England in 1066,

and which radically transformed English into the language we have today.

Now this time, I want to talk about time, or at least the Roman concept of time.

It was not only do many of our time-related terms come from Latin, but also because

it helps to illustrate how the language of the Romans permeates modern English.

And it also makes for some good etymology.

So let's return to where we left off last time, with Roman Gaul, the region that would

eventually become known as France.

And at this point in our story, Gaul was a newly conquered Roman territory.

And the conqueror was Julius Caesar.

And Caesar was also now the dictator of what would soon become the Roman Empire.

Now Julius Caesar was an historical figure who has impacted the English language in many

ways.

...