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

language.

This is Episode 23, Tacitus and Germanic Society.

In this episode, we're going to explore the social, legal, and political culture of the

early Germanic tribes.

And I'm going to do that by using the writings of the Roman historian Tacitus, who provided

us with the first detailed look at the early Germanic tribes, and we'll continue to explore

how certain modern English words developed during this early Germanic period.

But before I begin, let me remind you that the History of the Alphabet series is still

available through iTunes, Amazon.com, and the website, HistoryofEnglishPodcast.com, and

if any of you have any problems purchasing or downloading the series, just send me a

quick note at Kevin at HistoryofEnglishPodcast.com, and as always, if you have any other questions

or comments regarding the podcast, you can always reach me at the same address.

So let's turn to this episode, and let me begin by noting that I originally intended

to discuss the writings of Tacitus in a single episode.

But as I began putting this episode together, I realized that there was really too much

information for just one episode, so I'm actually going to deal with the subject of Germanic

culture in two parts.

This episode will focus on the social and political structure of the Germanic tribes,

and the nature of Germanic law and punishment, and I'm going to use Tacitus as a jumping

off point for that discussion.

In the next episode, I'm going to focus on Germanic religion and mythology, and also explore

...