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

This is Episode 72, The Dark Ages of English.

In this episode, we're going to look at the linguistic situation in England in the

early part of the 12th century.

By this point, English writing had almost disappeared.

And as far as the spoken language was concerned, it had to compete with Latin and French,

which were both considered much more prestigious than English.

Not only were Latin and French held in high regard, but English itself had fractured into

a variety of regional dialects.

And some of those dialects could no longer be understood by English speakers in other parts

of the country.

The linguistic situation on the ground was more muddled and confused than at any point

since the English language had emerged.

In many ways, these were the dark ages for English.

In fact, the English language that everyone knew was dying out.

So this time, we'll take a look at the state of English in the early part of the 12th century.

But before we begin, let me remind you that the website for the podcast is history of

Englishpodcast.com.

You can always reach me directly by email at kevinathistoryofenglishpodcast.com.

And I'm on Twitter at English HIST Pod.

I also have one quick clarification regarding the last episode.

Last time I discussed certain words related to hunting, and I noted that the words venison

...