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

This is Episode 96, from Alpha to Omega.

In this episode, we're going to look at an early vowel shift that took place in early

middle English.

This vowel shift helps to illustrate a basic link between the A sound and the O sound

throughout the history of English.

As we look at this sound change, we'll also continue our overall historical narrative,

and we'll explore the bitter feud between King John and the man who was Pope during his

reign.

That man was Pope innocent the third, and we'll see how that feud led to the closing of all

the churches in England during John's reign.

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

and you can sign up to support the podcast at patreon.com slash history of English.

And as always, you can reach me by email at kevinathistoryofenglishpodcast.com.

So let's turn to this episode, and this time I want to begin the story far away from

England, and far away from the early middle English period.

I actually want to begin in Greece, and the first Greek alphabet that was developed nearly

3,000 years ago.

As we know, the Greeks didn't invent the alphabet.

They borrowed it from the Phoenicians, and the Phoenicians spoke a Semitic language, which

was very rich in consonant sounds, but was much more limited in its vowel sounds.

In fact, the Semitic alphabet didn't have any letters for vowel sounds, but the Greek

...