About this episode

This episode explores how the English Civil War influenced the development of the English language, particularly the sounds of the letter U.

During the decade of the 1640s, England was divided by Civil War. At the same time, the sound of letter of U was also experiencing its own division, ultimately resulting in two distinct ‘long’ sounds and two distinct ‘short’ sounds. In this episode, we explore those developments and examine how the English Civil War shaped the English language. TRANSCRIPT: EPISODE 190

People in this episode

Host: Kevin Stroud

Topics covered

• English Civil War
• language development
• phonetics
• historical linguistics
• sound changes
• division of sounds

Keywords

• English Civil War
• language
• phonetics
• sounds of U
• 1640s
• linguistics
• historical changes

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Episode 190: Union, Division and Unusual U

Places: England

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