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

This is episode 51, Norse words and a new English.

In this episode, we're going to look at how the Norse language of the Vikings began to

change the English language of the Anglo-Saxons.

This was a gradual process, and in previous episodes, I've spoken about these changes in

general terms.

But over the next few episodes, we're going to look much more closely at what was happening

to the language.

In many ways, the changes which we're going to explore are the first steps in the transition

from Old English to Middle English.

Now the Normans get most of the credit or blame for Middle English, but the Normans really

completed a process which was already underway in certain parts of England.

So this time, we'll focus on those changes, and specifically, we'll focus on the Viking

vocabulary which was entering and changing English.

But before we begin, let me remind you that the Bayer Wolf deconstructed audiobook is

still available through the website, HistoryOfEnglishPodcast.com, and it's also available

through iTunes and Amazon.com.

Also one other quick note.

Since I began the podcast, I've received requests from time to time for transcripts of

the episodes, and I haven't really made those available because I've been working on

a written version of the podcast.

The problem is that I haven't made much progress on that written version, so I've decided

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