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

This is episode 64, feudalism and the early Normans.

In this episode, we're going to turn our attention back across to English Channel to France.

We're going to look at the rise of feudalism, and we'll look at some of the words which that system gave to English.

We'll also explore the early history of Normandy, and how Normandy fits into the larger context of European feudalism.

We'll also see how the Normans quickly abandoned their old Norse language once they were in France,

and they quickly developed their own unique French dialect.

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

and you can always reach me directly at kevinathistoryofenglishpodcast.com.

One quick note before we begin. Since the last episode, a few of you have contacted me to report that

most of the older episodes of the podcast are no longer available in iTunes,

only the most recent 20 episodes are there.

Well, this is strictly an iTunes issue. In fact, on many platforms, like the iTunes app for mobile

devices, you can still access all of the episodes. This is apparently just a glitch in the iTunes

store, and hopefully it'll be fixed shortly. But if you have a problem accessing the old episodes,

you can always go to the website, historyofenglishpodcast.com.

Now, let's turn to this episode.

Last time, we looked at events in England during the reign of Edward the Confessor,

but I stopped the story in the early 1050s, and I did that in part because that's the point at which

William of Normandy first enters the picture. But before we get to William of Normandy,

soon to become known as William the Conqueror, I wanted to give you a little background to a story.

William was a product of Normandy, and Normandy was a product of the feudal age of France.

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