At the end of each episode, Kevin thanks us for listening. But huge thanks are due to him for this magnificent podcast. Truly a gift that keeps giving
I came to this via a circuitous route a few years after it was first published. For years I’ve been fascinated by the Proto Indo European language. I recently started a German course which also explained the etymology of many words to PIE. My interest was piqued again and I and listened to a podcast on the topic and it mentioned the “History of English” podcast. A few yes ago I read “Mother Tongue” (also a history of the English language) by Bill Bryson and thought that was all I needed to know about English. I was wrong. In volume 1 of this podcast, the author describes in a lot of detail the origins of not just English, but many PIE derivative languages. Many of my preconceptions about it were disproved and as a reasonable German speaker, it’s fascinating to see how that language evolved as well. The author has done an amazing job of researching the topic and narrating the history of the language in an easy to understand accessible way. Given that it’s not an “in-depth” explanation, the level of detail is stupendous. I often listen to an episode 2-3 times over to fully understand it. He deserves immense credit for this magnum opus, which covers social and anthropological topics as well. Although he only touches on religion, it’s fascinating to see the connections between seemingly unrelated religions. I’ve just reached volume 2, which is more or less where “Mother Tongue” starts, but with the background of PIE, Latin, Gothic and the journey to Friesich it all makes so much more sense. I can’t commend the podcast enough, even for the amateur philologer, but the author can’t be praised enough for the commitment depth of his research and easy style that makes it such an enjoyable experience.
