Why is English?

In part 2 of The Alphabet, we get into some of the weirder letters, like C and G, which can each represent two different sounds, TH and CH, which are both two letters for one sound, and W, which is just…two…U's? or V's?

In this episode, we find out how our alphabet came to be, from the symbols to the letter names, and the paths many of the letters took to get to what they are now.

In this episode, we’re looking into some of the ways American English and British English diverged, aka Why Those Other People Talk So Weird.

In episode 4, we get into some of the reasons behind English’s weird spelling, including a major shift in pronunciation and the path to spelling standardization.

In episode 3, we’re looking at why we put a random little line before an 's' to show possession, and how apostrophes and possessives have not always been so closely associated.

In episode 2, we talk about some of the history of pronouns in English, especially the many attempts at gender-neutral pronouns and the journey of singular ‘they’.

In this episode, we look at the different periods in the history of the English language, how English changed from Old English to today, and why complaining about language change is futile.