1 00:00:00,960 --> 00:00:11,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you missed in history class from dot com. Hello, 2 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:15,360 Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast I'm Crazy and I'm Holly Frying. 3 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:18,800 Speaker 1: At the end of our recent episode on the Honey War, 4 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:22,440 Speaker 1: we read a listener mail from an Egyptologist about honorary 5 00:00:22,520 --> 00:00:25,400 Speaker 1: transposition and hieroglyphics, and that led us into this little 6 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:27,680 Speaker 1: digression about how hard it can be to figure out 7 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:30,520 Speaker 1: how to pronounce words and languages that nobody speaks anymore. 8 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:34,159 Speaker 1: And I made this random aside about how I had 9 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:36,280 Speaker 1: thought way back when Holly and I first got on 10 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:39,600 Speaker 1: the podcast, I thought about doing an episode about the 11 00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:45,360 Speaker 1: Great vowel Shift. We have never gotten nearly so much 12 00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:48,839 Speaker 1: response to any other random, weird thing we said on 13 00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:53,280 Speaker 1: the show as we have about the Great vowel Shift. 14 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:57,360 Speaker 1: I was astonished, Were you astonished? Who knew? I had 15 00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:01,720 Speaker 1: no idea how people were like rapidly excited of this content. Yeah, 16 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:04,360 Speaker 1: it was this astounding number of people that asked us 17 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:06,400 Speaker 1: to talk about it, which we still we got another 18 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:09,160 Speaker 1: email over the weekend after this had already been like 19 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:12,640 Speaker 1: the outline had been written and everything. When I mentioned 20 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:15,440 Speaker 1: on Twitter that an astounding number of people had asked 21 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:19,240 Speaker 1: more people asked after that, only one person asked that 22 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:24,560 Speaker 1: we not do that, So I'm sorry that person is outvoted. Um, 23 00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:27,039 Speaker 1: I just I can't get over how many people have 24 00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:28,720 Speaker 1: asked for it, because this was really at the tail 25 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:31,160 Speaker 1: end of the show. To be candid, we know there 26 00:01:31,160 --> 00:01:33,200 Speaker 1: are people who have checked out by that point, like 27 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:34,720 Speaker 1: we know there are a lot of people who don't 28 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:38,560 Speaker 1: listen to listener mail. Uh. But every possible way people 29 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:41,080 Speaker 1: have to talk to us, they did to ask us 30 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:43,840 Speaker 1: to talk about the Great Vowelshift. So the eyes have it. 31 00:01:43,959 --> 00:01:46,160 Speaker 1: Today We're going to talk about the Great vowel Shift. 32 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:49,760 Speaker 1: But because it is, like I said, a little Inside Baseball, 33 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:52,600 Speaker 1: thirty entire minutes about vowels, I think would be a 34 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:54,360 Speaker 1: little much for most people. So we're going to put 35 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:57,240 Speaker 1: it in the greater context of the history of English, 36 00:01:57,280 --> 00:01:59,600 Speaker 1: of the English language, and that comes with its own caveat, 37 00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:02,120 Speaker 1: which is there are whole books about the history of 38 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:05,680 Speaker 1: the English language. My alma mater had a semester long 39 00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:09,280 Speaker 1: literature class about it, and it wasn't even just like 40 00:02:09,320 --> 00:02:15,320 Speaker 1: a like, it wasn't a one level literature class. Um. 41 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:18,600 Speaker 1: And there's like there's a podcast called the History of English, 42 00:02:18,639 --> 00:02:21,399 Speaker 1: and that has run for sixty seven episodes so far. 43 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:24,040 Speaker 1: So obviously, we are not going to talk about every 44 00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:27,480 Speaker 1: single thing there is to mention in the history of English, 45 00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:29,720 Speaker 1: and we're not going to get too deep into the 46 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:32,800 Speaker 1: very technical linguistic terms that are used to describe a 47 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:35,040 Speaker 1: lot of it. What we are going to talk about 48 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:39,600 Speaker 1: is how the history of English runs alongside a greater story, 49 00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:43,680 Speaker 1: which is basically all about conquering people and being conquered. 50 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:48,840 Speaker 1: So the history of English begins before the arrival of 51 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:51,240 Speaker 1: Germanic peoples, who came to be known as the Anglo 52 00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:55,360 Speaker 1: Saxons in the British Isles. The Anglo Saxons arrived in 53 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:58,239 Speaker 1: what is now England and Wales from the European continent. 54 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:02,959 Speaker 1: Some came peacefully, although others definitely arrived as invaders and conquerors. 55 00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:07,400 Speaker 1: According to be the Venerable, the Anglo Saxons included three 56 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 1: distinct groups, the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jews. Their 57 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: arrival in England started toward the middle of the fifth century, 58 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:17,399 Speaker 1: and the language that developed in the wake of their 59 00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:21,160 Speaker 1: arrival is now known as Old English. Its roots come 60 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:23,880 Speaker 1: from a number of Germanic languages, and their dialects, with 61 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:28,800 Speaker 1: the primary contributors being West Germanic, Old Frisian, Old Franconian 62 00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:33,400 Speaker 1: and Old High German. Before the arrival of the Anglo Saxons, 63 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:35,760 Speaker 1: the people of the British Isles spoke a variety of 64 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:39,560 Speaker 1: Celtic languages. It's also possible that some people spoke Latin, 65 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:42,160 Speaker 1: since the Roman Empire had governed parts of Britain for 66 00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:44,760 Speaker 1: about three hundred and fifty years from the year forty 67 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:48,360 Speaker 1: three to the year four ten. It's not completely clear, though, 68 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:50,840 Speaker 1: how well Latin survived after the end of the Roman 69 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:53,960 Speaker 1: rule in what the Empire referred to as Britannia in 70 00:03:54,080 --> 00:03:57,760 Speaker 1: for ten. Nor should all these different Celtic speaking people's 71 00:03:57,840 --> 00:04:00,960 Speaker 1: be lumped together in one cultural group. The idea that 72 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:04,480 Speaker 1: the British Isles were once inhabited by a monolithic cultural 73 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:08,680 Speaker 1: group called the Celts is really an eighteenth century invention. Yeah, 74 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:12,440 Speaker 1: all these different Celtic speaking people's had their own unique cultures, 75 00:04:12,480 --> 00:04:14,600 Speaker 1: in their own unique ways of living. They were not 76 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:18,359 Speaker 1: one sort of people known as the Celts. Several of 77 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:21,200 Speaker 1: the Celtic languages that existed in the British Isles when 78 00:04:21,240 --> 00:04:24,400 Speaker 1: the Anglo Saxtons arrived which are classified as the insular 79 00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:29,440 Speaker 1: Celtic languages still exist today. Welsh, Scottish, Gaelic, Irish, Cornish, 80 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:31,320 Speaker 1: and Manx, which is spoken in the Isle of Man, 81 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:35,360 Speaker 1: are all examples of insular Celtic languages. Celtic languages were 82 00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:38,400 Speaker 1: once common on the European continent as well, but apart 83 00:04:38,440 --> 00:04:41,200 Speaker 1: from Breton, which was really an insular Celtic language that 84 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:44,640 Speaker 1: was carried from the British Isles back to Brittany, Celtic 85 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:47,880 Speaker 1: languages didn't survive well on the continent beyond the fourth 86 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:52,320 Speaker 1: or fifth century. While several insular Celtic languages survived today, 87 00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:55,680 Speaker 1: some thanks to intentional efforts to preserve them, all of 88 00:04:55,720 --> 00:05:01,919 Speaker 1: the continental Celtic languages are extinct. Insular Celtic languages didn't 89 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:05,160 Speaker 1: wind up adding very many words to English, though. This 90 00:05:05,240 --> 00:05:07,279 Speaker 1: is one reason why if you do speak English but 91 00:05:07,320 --> 00:05:10,080 Speaker 1: don't speak a Celtic language, trying to sound out a 92 00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:13,640 Speaker 1: word from a Celtic language can be a completely baffling experience. 93 00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:17,480 Speaker 1: It's possible that the insular Celtic languages had an influence 94 00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:20,719 Speaker 1: on grammar and pronunciation in Old English, but when it 95 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:23,760 Speaker 1: comes to the individual words and the letters and sounds 96 00:05:23,839 --> 00:05:25,960 Speaker 1: used to make them. There really was not a lot 97 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:29,240 Speaker 1: of sharing going on. Yeah, I'm sure there's some like 98 00:05:29,279 --> 00:05:33,560 Speaker 1: a hilarious video somewhere that English speakers trying to pronounce 99 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:39,159 Speaker 1: Welsh not only does the like, the spelling of Welsh 100 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:43,479 Speaker 1: words doesn't follow a pattern that English speakers recognize really well, 101 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:47,640 Speaker 1: the letters themselves are pronounced differently than they are in English. 102 00:05:47,839 --> 00:05:51,120 Speaker 1: The English saxons and their languages were firmly established in 103 00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:53,960 Speaker 1: England by the sixth century, and there are lots of 104 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:57,719 Speaker 1: English words in use today that came from these Germanic languages, 105 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:02,359 Speaker 1: although they generally had different spellings and pronunciations at the time. 106 00:06:02,680 --> 00:06:04,520 Speaker 1: A lot of these words are really short and they 107 00:06:04,520 --> 00:06:10,640 Speaker 1: describe everyday objects and things. So baker, beer, sheep, bird, eel, book, father, world, 108 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:13,799 Speaker 1: and right are all examples of English words that exist 109 00:06:13,839 --> 00:06:17,520 Speaker 1: today that we're also part of. These Germanic Old English words. 110 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:21,039 Speaker 1: The words for England and English also come from these 111 00:06:21,080 --> 00:06:25,400 Speaker 1: Germanic roots. There were plenty of longer, more complex words 112 00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:28,640 Speaker 1: in Old English as well, but the shortest words used 113 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:31,600 Speaker 1: for the most everyday things and ideas were the most 114 00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:34,680 Speaker 1: commonly used and consequently had the most staying power. In 115 00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:37,560 Speaker 1: the evolution of the language. More than half of the 116 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:40,640 Speaker 1: thousand most common words in Old English still exists in 117 00:06:40,680 --> 00:06:45,320 Speaker 1: the English language today. Conversely, about eight percent of the 118 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:49,680 Speaker 1: thousand most common words in English today came from Old English, 119 00:06:49,920 --> 00:06:53,200 Speaker 1: which to me adds a delightful layer to Randall Monroe's 120 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:57,120 Speaker 1: book Thing Explainer, which is a book that explains complicated 121 00:06:57,160 --> 00:07:00,920 Speaker 1: stuff using the only, only, the one than most common 122 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:03,840 Speaker 1: words in English. So I like the idea of reading 123 00:07:03,839 --> 00:07:08,599 Speaker 1: that but pretending that you're reading Old English instead. But 124 00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:11,320 Speaker 1: in spite of the simplicity of the Old English words 125 00:07:11,360 --> 00:07:14,240 Speaker 1: that remain in English today, a lot of Old English 126 00:07:14,280 --> 00:07:17,120 Speaker 1: was kind of complicated in a different way than how 127 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:20,920 Speaker 1: today's English is complicated. In Old English, verbs could change 128 00:07:20,920 --> 00:07:24,360 Speaker 1: their position in the sentence for emphasis or grammatical reasons, 129 00:07:24,840 --> 00:07:27,040 Speaker 1: and a number of inflections were used to change the 130 00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:31,240 Speaker 1: meanings of words. Inflections still exist today. Adding an S 131 00:07:31,280 --> 00:07:33,240 Speaker 1: to a noun to make it plural as an example 132 00:07:33,240 --> 00:07:35,640 Speaker 1: of inflection, as is adding an e D to a 133 00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:38,360 Speaker 1: verb to make it in the past tense. But Old 134 00:07:38,360 --> 00:07:41,000 Speaker 1: English had a lot more inflections for a lot more 135 00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:43,760 Speaker 1: reasons than modern English does, and applied them to a 136 00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:47,000 Speaker 1: lot more parts of speech. Words in Old English were 137 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:49,280 Speaker 1: also often gendered in a way that they are not 138 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:53,520 Speaker 1: in modern English. Germanic languages also aren't the only root 139 00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:56,600 Speaker 1: of Old English. In the late sixth century, so a 140 00:07:56,680 --> 00:07:59,360 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty or two hundred years after the Anglos 141 00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:03,600 Speaker 1: Action Acts, an invasion of England began. Christian missionaries began 142 00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:06,040 Speaker 1: arriving in the British Isles as well, and they brought 143 00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:08,400 Speaker 1: with them a language that was not entirely new to 144 00:08:08,440 --> 00:08:14,200 Speaker 1: the region, which was Latin. Latin began to influence Old English, 145 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:17,240 Speaker 1: and the Latin alphabet was also used to write Old English, 146 00:08:17,560 --> 00:08:19,880 Speaker 1: with the addition of a couple of characters to represent 147 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:23,280 Speaker 1: the th sound, the most famous being the character thorn. 148 00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:26,920 Speaker 1: The first Latin English glossaries date back to the year 149 00:08:26,960 --> 00:08:30,239 Speaker 1: seven hundred, and some scholars argued that this is really 150 00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:33,800 Speaker 1: the birth of Old English as a language. We still 151 00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:36,920 Speaker 1: have some literature that was written in Old English around today. 152 00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:40,199 Speaker 1: The most famous pieces are probably the epic poem Beowulf, 153 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:43,160 Speaker 1: which is one of my favorite things, and for pros 154 00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:46,960 Speaker 1: the writings of King Alfred the Great. The next big 155 00:08:47,040 --> 00:08:49,640 Speaker 1: changes to the English language were also the result of 156 00:08:49,679 --> 00:08:53,880 Speaker 1: invasions starting in the eighth century Scandinavians made their way 157 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:57,240 Speaker 1: to England, all the folks we broadly classify as Vikings, 158 00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:00,760 Speaker 1: and while there are definitely English words that have Norse roots, 159 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:03,920 Speaker 1: most of this influence on the language itself didn't come 160 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:06,520 Speaker 1: along until a bit later, after the next big shift 161 00:09:06,559 --> 00:09:08,520 Speaker 1: in the language, which we're going to talk about, but 162 00:09:08,600 --> 00:09:12,040 Speaker 1: first we're gonna have a word from a sponsor. So 163 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:15,560 Speaker 1: Old English was spoken in much of what's now known 164 00:09:15,600 --> 00:09:18,720 Speaker 1: as England and Wales from roughly the sixth to the 165 00:09:18,760 --> 00:09:23,680 Speaker 1: eleventh centuries, and from there it gradually shifted into Middle English, 166 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:26,480 Speaker 1: which is one of the languages associated with the medieval 167 00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:29,280 Speaker 1: period in Britain. As we talked about at the top 168 00:09:29,320 --> 00:09:32,200 Speaker 1: of the show, Old English was the language invaders and 169 00:09:32,240 --> 00:09:35,480 Speaker 1: colonists from the European continent brought to the island after 170 00:09:35,520 --> 00:09:38,520 Speaker 1: the end of the Roman Empire. In Britain, the shift 171 00:09:38,559 --> 00:09:41,240 Speaker 1: into Middle English was the result of invasions as well. 172 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:45,120 Speaker 1: Middle English came about thanks to influences from the Normans, 173 00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:50,360 Speaker 1: the Vikings, and Christian missionaries. The Norman invasion was famously 174 00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:53,720 Speaker 1: marked by past podcast subject the Battle of Hastings, which 175 00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:55,920 Speaker 1: took place in ten sixty six and The Battle of 176 00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:59,520 Speaker 1: Hastings was also documented in the Biou Tapestry, which was 177 00:09:59,559 --> 00:10:04,400 Speaker 1: also another past podcast subject. Over the next one years 178 00:10:04,480 --> 00:10:07,480 Speaker 1: or so following the Battle of Hastings, English went through 179 00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:10,760 Speaker 1: a number of shifts and revisions. Some scholars refer to 180 00:10:10,800 --> 00:10:14,559 Speaker 1: this period as transitional English because so many different influences 181 00:10:14,559 --> 00:10:17,199 Speaker 1: on the language we're still making their way through how 182 00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:21,320 Speaker 1: people really spoke and wrote. A big shift was in grammar. 183 00:10:21,640 --> 00:10:25,520 Speaker 1: The number of inflections dropped dramatically, particularly when it came 184 00:10:25,520 --> 00:10:28,760 Speaker 1: to nouns, and a lot of the more complex, lengthy 185 00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:31,400 Speaker 1: words from Old English that didn't survive until today were 186 00:10:31,400 --> 00:10:35,000 Speaker 1: replaced by words from other languages. Basically, the language is 187 00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:38,040 Speaker 1: being spoken by the various peoples who were invading England. 188 00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:42,079 Speaker 1: William the Conqueror, who invaded at the Battle of Hastenings 189 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:45,240 Speaker 1: spoke Norman French, and the ruling class that he brought 190 00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:48,679 Speaker 1: with him did as well. Because of this French influence, 191 00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:51,400 Speaker 1: for a time, much of the literature written in England 192 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:54,959 Speaker 1: was largely an Anglo Norman. Anglo Norman also became the 193 00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:58,000 Speaker 1: language favored by the nobility, the court system, and the 194 00:10:58,040 --> 00:11:00,880 Speaker 1: schools as well, some of them those famous works of 195 00:11:00,920 --> 00:11:03,560 Speaker 1: literature from the Middle Ages were written in Englo Norman, 196 00:11:03,640 --> 00:11:07,520 Speaker 1: including Tristan and Eiswold and the Lay of Marie de France. 197 00:11:08,120 --> 00:11:11,400 Speaker 1: The next most popular scholarly language in England was Latin, 198 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:14,640 Speaker 1: thanks to the influence of Christian missionaries. Because of this 199 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:18,240 Speaker 1: prevalence of both French and Latin, and the fact that 200 00:11:18,320 --> 00:11:20,840 Speaker 1: French and Latin have a lot in common, sometimes it's 201 00:11:20,840 --> 00:11:23,000 Speaker 1: really hard to tell whether a word that exists in 202 00:11:23,040 --> 00:11:26,160 Speaker 1: English today really came from French or Latin. This is 203 00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:29,520 Speaker 1: particularly true because some French words are borrowed from Latin, 204 00:11:29,640 --> 00:11:33,240 Speaker 1: and then the English words were borrowed from French. Regardless, though, 205 00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:36,280 Speaker 1: following the Norman invasion, lots of words with French or 206 00:11:36,360 --> 00:11:41,280 Speaker 1: Latin roots made their way into English, including peace, animal imagination, 207 00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:45,280 Speaker 1: and prison. The Viking raids into England pretty much stopped 208 00:11:45,320 --> 00:11:48,000 Speaker 1: after the Norman invasion. However, by the time they did, 209 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:51,280 Speaker 1: there were a lot of people in England, particularly Northern England, 210 00:11:51,559 --> 00:11:54,320 Speaker 1: who spoke one of the early Scandinavian languages that we 211 00:11:54,679 --> 00:11:58,120 Speaker 1: that would eventually grow into Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and the like. 212 00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:02,840 Speaker 1: None of these languages gained a long term foothold in England, 213 00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:06,880 Speaker 1: but lots of English words come from Scandinavian roots that 214 00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:10,360 Speaker 1: were started during this time. As with Old English words, 215 00:12:10,360 --> 00:12:13,199 Speaker 1: they're still spoken today. Many of them are short, one 216 00:12:13,280 --> 00:12:16,400 Speaker 1: or two syllable words that name everyday objects and ideas. 217 00:12:16,760 --> 00:12:22,080 Speaker 1: Some of the nouns from Scandinavian. Scandinavian origins include cow, bull, root, 218 00:12:22,200 --> 00:12:27,440 Speaker 1: and skin. Verbs include take, scare, flit, and want. The 219 00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:33,200 Speaker 1: pronoun they also has Scandinavian origins. Eventually, all of these 220 00:12:33,240 --> 00:12:36,360 Speaker 1: influences coalesced into a language that if you can read 221 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:39,560 Speaker 1: modern English, you can probably read as well, although it 222 00:12:39,679 --> 00:12:42,760 Speaker 1: may be a bit more difficult. Uh The words themselves 223 00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:45,599 Speaker 1: tend to be familiar, even though their spellings and pronunciations 224 00:12:45,600 --> 00:12:49,480 Speaker 1: are often inconsistent. By the thirteen hundreds, Middle English had 225 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:52,520 Speaker 1: become the favored language in England and literature was being 226 00:12:52,520 --> 00:12:54,880 Speaker 1: written in it. Some of the most famous works in 227 00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:58,320 Speaker 1: Middle English include the Canterbury Tales, Sir Gawaine and The 228 00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:01,040 Speaker 1: Green Night in the Book of Mark Juri Kemp, which 229 00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:04,080 Speaker 1: is of course the subject of a past podcast. The 230 00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:06,920 Speaker 1: first complete English translation of the Bible was in Middle 231 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:11,280 Speaker 1: English as well. On a brief digression about Marjorie Camp 232 00:13:11,559 --> 00:13:14,479 Speaker 1: that was one of the first episodes that I researched 233 00:13:14,520 --> 00:13:17,280 Speaker 1: for the podcast UM and I had chosen to do 234 00:13:17,320 --> 00:13:19,280 Speaker 1: it because it was something that I already had enough 235 00:13:19,320 --> 00:13:22,520 Speaker 1: familiary familiarity with that I felt like I could get 236 00:13:22,559 --> 00:13:26,000 Speaker 1: into it and not be starting from absolute square one. 237 00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:28,640 Speaker 1: And one of the first podcasts I ever researched, and 238 00:13:28,679 --> 00:13:31,000 Speaker 1: I went to get my college copy of the Book 239 00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:34,040 Speaker 1: of Marjorie Camp off of the bookshelf, and I opened 240 00:13:34,040 --> 00:13:35,920 Speaker 1: it up and it was in Middle English, and I 241 00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:39,839 Speaker 1: was like, oh, I do not I do not have 242 00:13:39,880 --> 00:13:42,680 Speaker 1: time to puzzle my way through Middle English for this podcast, 243 00:13:42,720 --> 00:13:46,080 Speaker 1: and so I had to order a Modern English version 244 00:13:46,120 --> 00:13:48,920 Speaker 1: of it. One of the reasons that I found it 245 00:13:48,920 --> 00:13:50,960 Speaker 1: difficult was that Middle English was in a lot of 246 00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:55,120 Speaker 1: ways not very standardized. Surviving manuscripts from the era vary 247 00:13:55,240 --> 00:13:57,280 Speaker 1: a lot from one another, even when they are literally 248 00:13:57,320 --> 00:14:00,720 Speaker 1: copies of the exact same piece of literature. In addition 249 00:14:00,800 --> 00:14:03,800 Speaker 1: to lots of inconsistencies in spelling and grammar, there were 250 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:07,280 Speaker 1: specific dialects that existed all over the British Isles, and 251 00:14:07,480 --> 00:14:10,920 Speaker 1: many people still spoke a Celtic language as their primary 252 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:14,520 Speaker 1: or only language during this time. Towards the end of 253 00:14:14,559 --> 00:14:17,600 Speaker 1: the fifteenth century English had its next big shift, and 254 00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:20,120 Speaker 1: we're going to talk about that after we have another 255 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:24,320 Speaker 1: pause for a sponsor break. After Middle English came perhaps 256 00:14:24,480 --> 00:14:28,240 Speaker 1: not surprisingly, Early Modern English. The King James Bible and 257 00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:31,320 Speaker 1: Shakespeare's plays are both in Early Modern English, and as 258 00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:34,240 Speaker 1: with Middle English, if you can read Modern English today 259 00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:36,800 Speaker 1: things that are written right now, you can probably read 260 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:38,400 Speaker 1: it too, but it might take your brain a little 261 00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:41,360 Speaker 1: bit more work. In a lot of ways, the shift 262 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:43,640 Speaker 1: from Old English to Middle English seems a lot more 263 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:47,000 Speaker 1: dramatic than from Middle English to Early Modern English, and 264 00:14:47,040 --> 00:14:50,040 Speaker 1: that makes a lot of logical sense. The transition from 265 00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:52,720 Speaker 1: Old English to Middle English was brought about, in large 266 00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:56,640 Speaker 1: part by the influence of multiple other languages on Old English, 267 00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:59,640 Speaker 1: but the shift from Middle English to Early Modern English 268 00:14:59,640 --> 00:15:02,840 Speaker 1: was a lot more about standardizing a language that already existed. 269 00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:07,240 Speaker 1: English vocabulary continued to grow, but mostly through the inclusion 270 00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:10,320 Speaker 1: of more words from languages people were already familiar with, 271 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:14,800 Speaker 1: or other romance languages that had similar roots. This was 272 00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:19,280 Speaker 1: the rise of pedantry in the English language. Different scholars 273 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:22,800 Speaker 1: set about trying to set rules specifically for English and 274 00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:26,240 Speaker 1: the nitpicking other writers who broke those rules. It's a 275 00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:30,600 Speaker 1: trend that continues to annoy editors today. Various writers, including 276 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:34,560 Speaker 1: seventeenth century writer and critic John Dryden, decreed that English 277 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:38,400 Speaker 1: should follow the rules of Latin and then effectively applied 278 00:15:38,640 --> 00:15:42,920 Speaker 1: Latin structure to English, so rules like don't end sentences 279 00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:46,040 Speaker 1: with prepositions are made up from during this time to 280 00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:50,000 Speaker 1: try to make English conformed to Latin rules. Alexander Pope 281 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:51,880 Speaker 1: and Jonathan Swift did a lot of writing about the 282 00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:55,600 Speaker 1: need to standardize English as well, and consensus among linguists 283 00:15:55,600 --> 00:15:58,720 Speaker 1: today is that you can try to permanently affix a 284 00:15:58,840 --> 00:16:01,360 Speaker 1: language all you want, but as long as people are 285 00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:06,880 Speaker 1: actually speaking it, it will continue to evolve. Beginning in 286 00:16:06,920 --> 00:16:10,440 Speaker 1: the middle of the seventeenth century, people started proposing that 287 00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:13,240 Speaker 1: there be a formal academy of English to document the 288 00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:17,360 Speaker 1: language and make sure it stayed quote pure. This didn't happen, 289 00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:21,080 Speaker 1: but through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, dictionaries did flourish. 290 00:16:21,360 --> 00:16:27,480 Speaker 1: English gradually became standardized. Perhaps inconveniently, this exact same time 291 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:31,200 Speaker 1: that people were writing dictionaries and standardizing rules for how 292 00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:33,640 Speaker 1: to speak and spell English was happening at the same 293 00:16:33,640 --> 00:16:38,240 Speaker 1: time as people were completely shifting how they pronounced things right. 294 00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:40,520 Speaker 1: At the same time that people were literally documenting how 295 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:43,480 Speaker 1: to spell, people were starting to say things differently from 296 00:16:43,520 --> 00:16:46,600 Speaker 1: how they were spelled. To be clear, the shift did 297 00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:50,080 Speaker 1: take hundreds of years to play out. Pronunciations were shifting 298 00:16:50,120 --> 00:16:53,480 Speaker 1: back in the twelfth century, but just as the language 299 00:16:53,560 --> 00:16:56,320 Speaker 1: was finishing that shift into the sixteenth century, people were 300 00:16:56,320 --> 00:16:59,520 Speaker 1: writing dictionaries based on the old spellings of words that 301 00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:02,760 Speaker 1: no longer matched how we say them. And a piece 302 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:06,440 Speaker 1: of this was the great vowel shift, essentially, where people 303 00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:09,800 Speaker 1: pronounced long vowels moved up and back in their mouths. 304 00:17:10,200 --> 00:17:14,320 Speaker 1: And the reason that Tracy had described this as being 305 00:17:14,359 --> 00:17:17,360 Speaker 1: a little too inside baseball is because it's really difficult 306 00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:20,879 Speaker 1: to both research and describe without a working knowledge of 307 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:26,120 Speaker 1: linguistics and phonology. We're going to assume most of our 308 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:28,359 Speaker 1: listeners don't have that, and I'm so I'm going to 309 00:17:28,359 --> 00:17:32,560 Speaker 1: take an extremely simple, basic approach to explaining this. If 310 00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:36,359 Speaker 1: you ever had to memorize the prolog to Chaucer's Canterbury 311 00:17:36,400 --> 00:17:39,280 Speaker 1: Tales in Middle English, you probably remember the first lines 312 00:17:39,880 --> 00:17:43,520 Speaker 1: which start wanted that up roll with his store of Sota, 313 00:17:44,119 --> 00:17:47,280 Speaker 1: the draft of March Hath person to the rota, and 314 00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:50,280 Speaker 1: in modern English, that's when April with his shower sweet 315 00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:53,359 Speaker 1: with root. The drought of March has pierced to the route. 316 00:17:54,200 --> 00:17:57,879 Speaker 1: So during the great vowel shift, for example, Rota became 317 00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:03,320 Speaker 1: pronounced his route after became April, or to look at it. 318 00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:06,359 Speaker 1: With some other words, the word height like how tall 319 00:18:06,440 --> 00:18:09,119 Speaker 1: you are today would have been pronounced more like heat, 320 00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:13,000 Speaker 1: and feet, the things at the end of people's legs 321 00:18:13,280 --> 00:18:17,800 Speaker 1: would have been pronounced fet and hate like really disliking 322 00:18:17,920 --> 00:18:21,800 Speaker 1: pedantry would have been pronounced more like hot. And these 323 00:18:21,800 --> 00:18:24,040 Speaker 1: were not the only shifts in pronunciation that went on 324 00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:27,879 Speaker 1: in early modern English. There are whole other vowel pronunciations 325 00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:30,960 Speaker 1: that used to be unique but now sound identical. People 326 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:34,359 Speaker 1: also stopped pronouncing a lot of consonants, as you could 327 00:18:34,359 --> 00:18:37,560 Speaker 1: probably hear in the Canterbury Tales example. But the early 328 00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:41,040 Speaker 1: modern period is also when we stopped produced pronouncing the K, 329 00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:46,240 Speaker 1: the G, and H in the word night, so we 330 00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:49,080 Speaker 1: don't think that would have been a much more complicated 331 00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:52,600 Speaker 1: word um. We also stopped saying the bee in lamb 332 00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:56,720 Speaker 1: and the tea in thistle. Basically a lot but not all, 333 00:18:56,800 --> 00:19:00,119 Speaker 1: of the complete discrepancies between how we spell things and 334 00:19:00,160 --> 00:19:03,879 Speaker 1: how we say them in English arose in early modern English. 335 00:19:04,080 --> 00:19:06,840 Speaker 1: Apparently for all the listeners at home who cannot see 336 00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:10,440 Speaker 1: the outline. This is where I also had discrepancies in typing. 337 00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:17,560 Speaker 1: There are a lot of theories for why all of 338 00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:21,240 Speaker 1: this happened. There are scholars who blame migration that followed 339 00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:24,560 Speaker 1: the Black Death. Others just say it's a natural drift 340 00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:27,560 Speaker 1: in how we pronounce things and it's still going on today. 341 00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:30,600 Speaker 1: The general consensus, though, is basically it's a mystery. We 342 00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:33,439 Speaker 1: don't really know why everybody changed how they said their vowels. 343 00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:36,760 Speaker 1: There are also some naysayers among linguists who say that 344 00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:40,320 Speaker 1: this whole thing is extremely exaggerated and that it wasn't 345 00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:45,199 Speaker 1: nearly as pronounced or important as people uh position it 346 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:48,880 Speaker 1: as today. And to be clear, people did figure out 347 00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:52,680 Speaker 1: the vowel shift by examining things like verse like what 348 00:19:52,840 --> 00:19:57,440 Speaker 1: words rhymed with what other words uh, and misspellings and documents, 349 00:19:57,440 --> 00:19:59,920 Speaker 1: with the idea that if you were spelling something that 350 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:03,359 Speaker 1: way it sounded, the misspelling that you make would change 351 00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:06,640 Speaker 1: over time as the vowel pronunciation shifted. So to some 352 00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:10,280 Speaker 1: extent are very understanding of these pronunciations here is kind 353 00:20:10,320 --> 00:20:14,240 Speaker 1: of an educated guess. Towards the end of the Early 354 00:20:14,359 --> 00:20:18,320 Speaker 1: Modern period, people continued to be very concerned with standardizing 355 00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:23,040 Speaker 1: and perfecting English. In the eighteen hundreds, professionally printed materials 356 00:20:23,080 --> 00:20:27,199 Speaker 1: became increasingly standard in their spelling, grammar, and style, but 357 00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:30,280 Speaker 1: people's personal papers continued to be all over the place. 358 00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:33,000 Speaker 1: People have made much of the fact that Jane Austen's 359 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:36,720 Speaker 1: handwritten drafts are full of what are considered errors, but 360 00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:40,600 Speaker 1: really that's how ordinary non pedants wrote at the time. Yeah, 361 00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:44,320 Speaker 1: people were much more casual in their personal correspondence than 362 00:20:44,359 --> 00:20:48,199 Speaker 1: the increasingly standard professionally printed work. From the end of 363 00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:51,200 Speaker 1: the Early Modern period, English progressively became more and more 364 00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:54,720 Speaker 1: like the language that we recognize today. It's probably safe 365 00:20:54,760 --> 00:20:57,920 Speaker 1: to say that most people find Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, 366 00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:00,920 Speaker 1: who were writing in Late Modern English, easier to read 367 00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:03,720 Speaker 1: than William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope, who wrote in Early 368 00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:07,160 Speaker 1: Modern English, and much much easier than Marjorie camp who 369 00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:10,440 Speaker 1: was writing in Middle English, and a million times easier 370 00:21:10,440 --> 00:21:13,240 Speaker 1: than the Epic of Beowulf has written in Old English, 371 00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:16,200 Speaker 1: which I'm not sure I could make out without a dictionary, 372 00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:20,040 Speaker 1: I definitely could not. While the development of English into 373 00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:23,360 Speaker 1: a modern language is most about who invaded England and 374 00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:26,720 Speaker 1: then an effort to standardize the result, English today is 375 00:21:26,760 --> 00:21:29,800 Speaker 1: also defined by where England went after that. The most 376 00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:33,240 Speaker 1: obvious is the variations in slang, pronunciation, and dialects and 377 00:21:33,320 --> 00:21:36,080 Speaker 1: places that were or are still part of the British Empire. 378 00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:41,680 Speaker 1: English does not sound quite the same in Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, 379 00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:45,320 Speaker 1: the United States, India. In each of these places, English 380 00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:47,879 Speaker 1: also has its own loan words that are unique to 381 00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:52,360 Speaker 1: the languages being spoken there before English arrived. But it's 382 00:21:52,359 --> 00:21:55,800 Speaker 1: not just about the nuances and what's considered standard English 383 00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:59,160 Speaker 1: and all of these different countries. There are also creoles 384 00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:02,600 Speaker 1: and dialects that have involved that have evolved in tandem 385 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:05,639 Speaker 1: with English all over the world. As an example, in 386 00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:09,160 Speaker 1: the America's and the Caribbean, there are English based creoles 387 00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:12,639 Speaker 1: that evolved as a result of the Transatlantic slave trade. 388 00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:17,160 Speaker 1: They draw from English West African languages and sometimes sometimes 389 00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:22,400 Speaker 1: the language of native peoples who were living in the area. Guala, Jamaican, Patois, 390 00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:26,120 Speaker 1: Cayman Creole, and Bahamian Creole are all creoles that draw 391 00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:31,199 Speaker 1: from English, African languages, and sometimes each other. Australian Creole 392 00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:33,720 Speaker 1: and pit Current are examples of creoles that draw from 393 00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:37,560 Speaker 1: English and native people's languages in the Pacific, pretty much 394 00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:41,159 Speaker 1: anywhere English speakers of colonized There are also dialects of 395 00:22:41,200 --> 00:22:44,320 Speaker 1: English that have their own rules about grammar and pronunciation. 396 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:48,040 Speaker 1: One example is African American Vernacular English, which is a 397 00:22:48,119 --> 00:22:52,200 Speaker 1: lot in common with Southern English dialects. So that is 398 00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:56,280 Speaker 1: an extremely, extremely condensed history of the English language of 399 00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:58,159 Speaker 1: thanks in part to how many people wanted us to 400 00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:00,840 Speaker 1: talk about the Great Belshift. If you are a linguist, 401 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:07,240 Speaker 1: this was probably the stuff that is way, like, you know, 402 00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:10,439 Speaker 1: way more stuff than what we just said. I suddenly 403 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:12,680 Speaker 1: found myself mired in gosh, what things am I really 404 00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:17,639 Speaker 1: pedantic about? Usually only one? Well, what's really funny, not funny, 405 00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:21,359 Speaker 1: It's more annoying to me is that sometimes we'll put 406 00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:23,639 Speaker 1: like let's say, for example, we'll put an article on 407 00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:27,520 Speaker 1: our Facebook page, and the article will end the headline 408 00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:30,479 Speaker 1: with a preposition, and someone will come and make a 409 00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:34,640 Speaker 1: comment about how one should not end sentences with prepositions 410 00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:38,600 Speaker 1: and then I will provide numerous sources about how that's 411 00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:43,359 Speaker 1: actually fine, and then nine of the time the person 412 00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:47,359 Speaker 1: just doubles down into how that that is the right way. 413 00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:51,120 Speaker 1: And you should make sure that not to apply made 414 00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:54,479 Speaker 1: up to rules to English. And I'm like, but you 415 00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:59,639 Speaker 1: are complaining about is a made up rule? Yeah? Like, 416 00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:03,280 Speaker 1: there definitely great value in learning how to speak and 417 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:06,520 Speaker 1: write well. These are important skills to have in life. 418 00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:10,760 Speaker 1: But then you also really should think about how the 419 00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:12,879 Speaker 1: way that people talk, in the language that they use, 420 00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:15,800 Speaker 1: in the way people speaking right also reflects where they 421 00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:18,679 Speaker 1: are from and their upbringing, how much education they actually 422 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:22,520 Speaker 1: had access to, their class, their ethnicity, Like, there's a 423 00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:26,879 Speaker 1: whole lot that goes into how people talk and right. So, uh, 424 00:24:27,040 --> 00:24:30,840 Speaker 1: pedantically nitpicking strangers on the internet about how they spelled 425 00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:34,240 Speaker 1: something wrong is perhaps not the best use of anyone's 426 00:24:34,280 --> 00:24:37,560 Speaker 1: time unless you are literally that person's English teacher, and 427 00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:39,920 Speaker 1: the thing you are nitpicking on the internet is literally 428 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:47,159 Speaker 1: their class assignment that they did to you. Uh, you know, 429 00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:50,040 Speaker 1: for some people that's their windmill that they tilt at. 430 00:24:50,080 --> 00:24:53,800 Speaker 1: I don't I find and I think you probably do 431 00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:57,240 Speaker 1: as well. Like people are surprised that I'm not one 432 00:24:57,240 --> 00:24:59,200 Speaker 1: of those. They're like, but you're an editor, and I'm like, yeah, 433 00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:01,919 Speaker 1: but if he had it long enough, you realize that 434 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:05,600 Speaker 1: even really fabulous, well educated people make typos and mistakes 435 00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:10,200 Speaker 1: when they're putting together manuscripts like it, did you understand 436 00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:12,080 Speaker 1: what they were getting it? Like you could at the 437 00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:14,280 Speaker 1: other stuff if you're doing it, you know along the 438 00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:20,120 Speaker 1: guidelines for like publication that that's usually my criteria are 439 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:27,280 Speaker 1: was the meaning understood? That's only that's a criterion somebody 440 00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:29,679 Speaker 1: is going to write about anyway. I have some listener 441 00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:33,800 Speaker 1: mail that's not about pedantry fantastic. It's about the Honey Lore, 442 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:36,600 Speaker 1: which is the same episode that inspired this whole podcast, 443 00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:38,720 Speaker 1: and it is from I am not sure if she 444 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:41,480 Speaker 1: says her name Tamara or tamoraw. I have known people 445 00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:43,399 Speaker 1: who spell their names this way and have said it 446 00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:46,200 Speaker 1: both ways. And she says this might be a little 447 00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:48,280 Speaker 1: late because I tend to hoard episodes for a few 448 00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:51,800 Speaker 1: weeks before listening to them. But Lowbourn Bogs, the Missouri 449 00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:54,720 Speaker 1: governor with the dispute with Iowa, has another claim to fame. 450 00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:58,760 Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty eight, he issued Missouri Executive Order forty four, 451 00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:00,879 Speaker 1: which made it legal to drive have Mormons out of 452 00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:03,639 Speaker 1: the state and if necessary, kill them, and then she 453 00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:07,119 Speaker 1: quotes from it. We therefore agree that, after timely warning 454 00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:10,280 Speaker 1: and receiving an adequate compensation for what little property they 455 00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:12,280 Speaker 1: cannot take with them, they refused to leave us in 456 00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:15,080 Speaker 1: peace as they found us, we agree to use such 457 00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:18,119 Speaker 1: means as may be sufficient to remove them. And to 458 00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:20,920 Speaker 1: that we each pledged to each other, our bodily powers, 459 00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:24,359 Speaker 1: our lives, fortunes, and sacred honors. Basically, it's legal to 460 00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:26,440 Speaker 1: steal their land and kill them if they object. This 461 00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:29,119 Speaker 1: order was an effect until nineteen seventy six hundred and 462 00:26:29,200 --> 00:26:32,000 Speaker 1: thirty seven years later. Classy man thought you might be 463 00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:36,000 Speaker 1: interested in that tidbit of information, uh, and then send 464 00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:39,920 Speaker 1: some thank you's and some other cool stuff, So thank 465 00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:42,359 Speaker 1: you so much, Tamara. Tamara was one of several people 466 00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:46,520 Speaker 1: who wrote about Missouri Executive Order forty four UM, which 467 00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:50,720 Speaker 1: we didn't mention in that episode for several reasons. One 468 00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:54,960 Speaker 1: of the reasons is that episode was selected because it's 469 00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,879 Speaker 1: it's actual events are kind of comical. There are plenty 470 00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:01,000 Speaker 1: of other things that were going around in the world 471 00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:03,280 Speaker 1: at that time that we're not comical. And there were 472 00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:05,960 Speaker 1: also plenty of things that we're going around in Missouri 473 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:09,320 Speaker 1: and Iowa that we're not comical, but that particular thing 474 00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:11,719 Speaker 1: is kind of a comedy of errors, and we had 475 00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:15,840 Speaker 1: been in a series of dark episodes when that one 476 00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:20,080 Speaker 1: came out, So, uh, the reason we chose that story 477 00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:22,359 Speaker 1: when it was to share something that had a little 478 00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:24,359 Speaker 1: bit more levity in it, which was why we didn't 479 00:27:24,359 --> 00:27:27,080 Speaker 1: get into all of the other ancillary things that you 480 00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:30,480 Speaker 1: could talk about that we're horrifying and awful. Um, but 481 00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:32,440 Speaker 1: I did want to mention it since we did get 482 00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:38,119 Speaker 1: several emails from folks um, mostly calling Governor Bogs a jerk, 483 00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:42,960 Speaker 1: which suits. So you would like to write you would 484 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:44,679 Speaker 1: like to write to us about this or any other 485 00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:47,200 Speaker 1: podcast where History podcasts at how Stuffworks dot com. We're 486 00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:49,639 Speaker 1: also on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash miss in 487 00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:52,440 Speaker 1: history and on Twitter at miss in History. Our tumbler 488 00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:54,359 Speaker 1: is missed in History dot tumblo dot com, or also 489 00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:57,280 Speaker 1: on Pinterest at pinterest dot com slash missed in History. 490 00:27:57,600 --> 00:27:59,879 Speaker 1: You would like to to just have a little fun, 491 00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:01,840 Speaker 1: have a little fun with your day that's related to 492 00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:04,760 Speaker 1: this podcast. Come to our parent company's websites how stuff 493 00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:07,960 Speaker 1: works dot com. Put the word comma in the search bar, 494 00:28:08,200 --> 00:28:11,760 Speaker 1: you'll find an article called ten completely wrong ways to 495 00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:14,560 Speaker 1: use a comma. So if you want to enjoy that 496 00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:18,440 Speaker 1: for your own personal gloating about language, you are welcome. 497 00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:24,840 Speaker 1: Uh maybe don't then employ that information at Strangers on 498 00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:26,640 Speaker 1: the Man in It. If you would like to come 499 00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:28,840 Speaker 1: to our website, it is missed in History dot com. 500 00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:30,600 Speaker 1: We have show notes, We have an archive of every 501 00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:33,560 Speaker 1: episode we've ever done. We have some tips on how 502 00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:36,359 Speaker 1: to search search the archive for old episodes. We also 503 00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:38,320 Speaker 1: have a newly written f a Q because we get 504 00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:41,120 Speaker 1: asked a lot of the same questions and so I 505 00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:43,240 Speaker 1: made a document to answer them all. You can do 506 00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:45,040 Speaker 1: all that and a whole lot more at how stuff 507 00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:52,880 Speaker 1: works dot com or miss in history dot com. For 508 00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:55,560 Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, is how 509 00:28:55,600 --> 00:29:00,400 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. In e