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

This is episode 41, New Words from Old English.

In this episode, we're going to explore how the Anglo-Saxons expanded their vocabulary

by creating new words from old words.

This included putting two or more existing words together to create new compound words.

And it also included the use of prefixes and suffixes, many of which survive into modern

English.

And once we've explored this process, we're going to see how this new expanded vocabulary

combined with the expansion of learning to make Old English a true literary language,

capable of producing sophisticated literature, including the most well-known work in Old

English, Beowulf.

Let a quick note before we begin.

This episode is about words, lots of words.

In fact, this episode is probably more word-heavy than any other episode.

And that's because I want to illustrate how the Anglo-Saxons were constantly creating

new words within Old English.

And all of those new words, ultimately, allowed English to emerge as a fully mature literary

language.

It's important to keep in mind that the original Germanic language was a very basic,

earthy language.

By now, you will probably have noticed that Old English words tend to be short and simple.

They're often single syllable words, and they tend to express basic ideas and concepts.

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