December 10, 2024 • 32 mins
Let's be honest: the concept of writing stuff down is both brilliant and insane. Right now, all around the world, countless people are scrawling or typing messages that may last long after the writer has passed from this mortal plane - in a way, reading your favorite dead authors can be like communication from beyond the grave! Add to this, language itself is pretty ridiculous. In the first part of this special two-part series, Ben, Noel and Max crack each other up with an exploration of how writing became a thing, tracing its prehistoric origins through the rise of English, all the way up to what we call "modern English" today.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Let's give a big shout out in
the English language to our super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
What'sh there? They are?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
There, they are. That's mister Noel Brown. I am Ben Bullen.
We are coming to you in a language called English.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah, the English language, Modern English. Like the band We're
gonna stop the world and melt with all of you.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
There it is, there, it is, and that's an amazing
thing to do, because language itself is amazing one of
the cornerstones of all advanced human life. There are thousands
of languages, as we know, and many of them are
mutually unintelligible. But it's when you think about it, language
is the bedrock of society. Coupled with the absolutely Bonker's
(01:21):
idea of writing stuff down, you guys, language is something
like time travel, teleportation, telepathy, and necromancy all tied up
and one thoroughly ridiculous bow.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I had no idea. It was so spooky, Ben.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
It's a little spooky, right, you know. Think about it, Noel.
The last time you read a piece by your favorite
dead author. That person from beyond the grave is communicating
directly with you.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yeah, it's true. I mean that is sort of the nature.
You always talk about the game of telephone. That is history,
but that applies to language as well, because language does
not exist in a vacuum. It was created by people
over the course of time, and it is an evolutionary
thing in and of itself.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
And sometimes the medium is the message.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Oh very Marshall mcluan of you. Yeah, the medium is
the massage. Shout out to that book and apologies to
the library. And I stole that from back.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
In the days.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So this week's series, Noel, we are exploring one language
in particular. It's the one we're speaking now. Spoiler. It
is a paradoxical, piratic mixtape, all kinds of weird mismashed sounds.
They're represented by an arcane collection of specific, squidly and
(02:43):
straight lines with a little handful of sprinkling, a dab
and a dash of punctuation marks. Collectively, we call this weird,
weird thing the English alphabet.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
So why don't we take this episode and I think
maybe a second episode to discuss exactly how this English
language alphabet specifically thing came about.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, let's see how we got there, and maybe, just
for a treat, we might talk about the future as well.
All right, right, okay, so what the heck is an
alphabet to begin with? I think it's fair for us
(03:27):
to say, to understand the English alphabet, we have to
understand the again cartoonishly bizarre idea of writing things down right.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
At its most basic level, all in alphabet is is
a set of you know, pictures to pictographs, I guess right, drawings, characters,
brushstrokes as in the case of Japanese characters, you know,
where there really is an art to it, and it's
very bespoken, handmade. That can of course be the case
with other alphabets as well. This is used to represent
(04:01):
in some cases actual concepts, you know, ideas, whole words
and phrases. But on its most basic level, in alphabet
is designed to represent the phonemic structure of a language. So,
in other words, certain lines and curves that comprise these
different characters are designed to let the reader know what
(04:24):
sound they're supposed to make out their mouths.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yeah, exactly, you nailed it. And then it also lets
you know what context occurs. How does this R sound
or how does this M or this in or this
B sound exist on its own, and how does it
tie into other sounds indicated before or after it. It's
(04:49):
an amazing process, especially when we realize how quickly this
happens for practiced readers, you know what I mean? Like, Oh,
we should also mention since we love etymology. The origin
of the English word alphabet is not technically from English.
It's a bit of a portmanteau, arriving from the first
(05:10):
two letters of the Greek alphabet alpha and beta, and
they stole that from somewhere else. As we'll see, it
was first used in its Latin form alphabetum, by a
guy named Tertullian and a guy named Saint Jerome because
he was one of the very many saints of the
(05:31):
Catholic Church.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Yes, but not all alphabets are created equal.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
There are some that have way more symbols than others.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
There's some that really kind of thrive on sort of
an economy of language type model.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Modern English. The idea not the band, but also the
band is.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
A Latin script alphabet comprised of twenty six characters, but
some writing systems take a different approach to, you know,
kind of creating this written mishmash sounds yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
For instance, let's consider the alternative system of the syllabary.
An example of this would be the Cherokee language. Written
symbols there are meant to represent syllables of sound, and
to your earlier point, Noel Japanese language uses at least
(06:22):
one form of syllabic writing as well. The oldest system
of writing anything is what we call the logogram from
the Greek logos or word and gramma quote that which
is drawn or written Chinese. To the earlier point, that's
a great example of this. Idiograms characters that represent full ideas,
(06:44):
and then you see earlier examples of this like the
Egyptian hieroglyphs or Quinea form.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
However, the biggest difference is that the symbols in an
alphabet and syllabic systems they represent sound directly. They don't
in and of themselves have any meaning, unless, of course,
you're using them as like exhibits like ABCD, etc. You
can of course use them that way. So you could,
(07:12):
for example, read the letter B and think, well, I
see that letter in a lot of things, but on
its own without any other letters. It is just a sound.
I'm going to need a little bit more than that
to communicate an entire idea or thought.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Just so, and if we look at the ancient history,
we'll see that writing is humanity's principle technology even now,
for collecting, manipulating and story data and transmitting information. It
is a crazy idea. It's classic human So it's no
surprise we talk a lot about parallel thought. It's no
(07:49):
surprise that this concept was invented or discovered multiple times
independently in the Near East, in China and throughout Mesoamerica.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
The Cunia form script, you know, collection of characters that
was created in Mesopotamia aka present day Iraq circa thirty
two hundred BCE, was very very first to the party,
the language party, and it's also the only writing system
that can be traced to actual prehistoric roots. Like its
(08:23):
earliest prehistoric origins, first writing was used as a tool
in order to help aid in things like math, and
that earliest form of writing itself actually dates back to
an eighth millennium BCE system of numbers using clay tablets
clay tokens consisting of multiple different shapes. So why don't
(08:44):
we go to our buddy, James Wright, an editor over
at International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
James Wrights rights, he does do that, Ben, he does
emailed it. Give us James writing, Ah.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yes, So James Wright says that you can trace, like
you were saying, Noel, the invention of kinea form over
a period of ten thousand years, from the prehistoric predecessor
to the present day alphabet, and James sees it as
a division of four phases of evolution. First, you have
(09:23):
the clay tokens we mentioned earlier, and they represent units
of goods. There are three dimensional tokens. People are literally
handing these back and forth. Then they get transformed into
two dimensional pictographic signs representations of the tokens without actually
(09:43):
needing to have the tokens. And again, for cartoonishly long
amount of time, this script was just very counting. It
was just for nerds. It didn't change until much later
when they started using phonetic signs to talk about the
names of individuals in that civilization. That's right, and like
(10:07):
those clay tablets we talked about the tokens. The pictographic
script we're talking about now actually served a very specific
kind of mathematical purpose in the practice of accounting, and
that's from thirty five hundred to three thousand bcees, so
it's a pretty ancient profession being an accountant. We had
phonetic signs that were introduced then to transcribe the names
(10:30):
of individual people. That marked a very important turning point
when writing started to actually emulate sounds, those phonemes that
we were talking about the way we hear language spoken.
And as a result, this kind of became applicable to
things beyond just counting. It became applicable to expressing all
manner of thoughts and ideas. With two dozen letters each
(10:54):
representing a single vocal sound, the alphabet perfectly represented a
rendition of human speech. It was able to do a
pretty good job of that.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
So after these concepts that we've kind of previously outlined ideography, logography,
I think I got that right, and syllabarries, this new
alphabet really was a massive step forward into integrating much
much more advanced ways of communicating ideas into a written form.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
One hundred percent, that's right.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Until this is going to happen often.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
It's gonna Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
So until the third millennium BCE or so, as we
were saying, writing is for accounting, and it really changes
as war, spiritual minded people in Sumerian civilization start using
some form of visual depiction or engraving for funerary inscriptions.
(12:02):
At every step in this evolution we see a steady
progression in the abstraction of data. So you start off saying,
here's a way to write, you know, the number seven.
Here's a way to write the number four, and if
you take four from seven, here's a way to write
the number three. Now we are talking about increasingly complex ideas,
(12:25):
all of which eventually lead us to the alphabets we know, recognize,
and practice today. So what happens next? How do we
get to the How do we get from a bunch
of nerdy boffins who are very good at numbers to
the modern alphabet. We've got some steps along the way.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
That's right, the rise of the English alphabet, building on
this foundation created by our ancient predecessors.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
The very first widely used alphabet adjacent ish esque thing
was developed by Semitic peoples, the Phoenicians. Does that make
Does that ring any bells? Anybody phonetics Phoenicians about seven
hundred years later, right, consisting of twenty two letters, all consonants.
At this point, this Semitic language spread all throughout the
(13:14):
Mediterranean region, and that includes the Levat, North Africa, Southern Europe,
and the Iberian Peninsula. The Greeks at this point built
further on Phoenician alphabet by adding vowel sounds. Remember we
only previously had consonants.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
That's exactly very guttural, right, that would create a guttural thing.
And if you think about it, the vowels are what.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Makes language a little more mollifluous, right, a little more
melodic beautiful.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yeah, that only happens about seven fifty BCE. The are Pals,
the Greeks, they took letters from this Phoenician alphabet ish
thing and they said, look, these these certain symbols represent
stuff that does not exist in Greek speech. So we're
(14:02):
going to change them, and we're going to make them
our new vowels, our predecessors of aeio U. And sometimes
times why sometimes sometimes why why is it tricker? What
this is the creation of the first true alphabet, meaning
both vowels and consonants are explicit symbols in a single script.
(14:24):
In the early years, we already see fragmentation. There were
so many variants of the Greek alphabet, and as a result,
many other different alphabets evolved from these differing systems. We
see this time and time again. Dude, everybody wanted a
single system of language, but they all wanted it to
(14:47):
be the one they had made.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
What could go wrong, what could go wrong, and many things.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
It turns out the Latins that later were known by
the Romans, of course, you know, with their sandals and whatnot,
they were super into this idea and they you know,
this is another language thing that happens, a lot of pinching,
you know, picking and choosing from other cultures and other alphabets.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
They did this from the Greeks, as they did with
lots of other things. We know. The Romans were notorious
idea thieves, but they did.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
You know, they did improve a lot of things, wouldn't
you say, Ben, But they're spin on it.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah. They also looked at Etruscan civilization and they said,
we like what those folks are doing. Let's take this
Grecian alphabet and let's add the letters F and S
just like our friends down the way, and ancient Latin
did not have the letters G, J, V or U
(15:44):
as they will call it, W, Y and z. But
by about the third century CE, the Roman alphabet started
to look very similar to what we would call modern English.
They had every letter except for J U or V
and W and V and you just by the way
(16:05):
ridiculous historians, V and you have a cartoonish shared history.
Both were used throughout the Middle Ages, and until relatively
recently they were considered a single letter, so you kind
of had to read on context. That's why every Dan
Brown esque Indiana Jones esque film you see that has
(16:29):
old Latin.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Is it a V?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Is it a W?
Speaker 1 (16:32):
That That's why people were just freestyling exactly right.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
The history of writing in Britain actually, however, begins with
the Anglo Saxons, and that was in the fifth century CE.
They had significant ties to Scandinavia and other cultures from
the North Sea regions. The ancient Anglo Saxons had a
form of writing called oh my goodness futhorc.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
You gotta say it with your chestthorp.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
It's like a rodos yes just right, dragon shouts shout out. Indeed,
this k of dragons shout out. It was a It
totally is, man, It's a runic language. That's what the
dragon shouts were. If you've ever played the game, which
is a lot of fun, although it pisses me off, man,
because I'm at a place again where I'm gonna have
to start over because I've gotten to a game breaking
(17:26):
place in my save and my old saves are too old,
and I just am not gonna I don't know if
I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Man, I love the game so much, but it keeps
letting me down.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
It's okay, you'll always end up being a stealth archer.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
That's true. I am a little bit of a you
know that.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Where the game takes you. I mean, flexible ruines kept
getting added to this foothork and when what we see
is a pretty stunning evolution. Fouthort just appeared in England
with twenty six character and by the time it went
out of fashion around the eleventh century Common era, it
(18:06):
already had thirty three characters total. So people kept adding
rooms to depict abstract ideas. And you know, around this
time too, there's event diagram always happens with language. So
if we go back from the eleventh century to the
seventh century. We'll see that the Latin alphabet was introduced
(18:28):
by Christian missionaries and it began to take hold. The
first formal list of all the letters or all the
symbols or characters in the Old English alphabet comes around
ten eleven CE. It had a lot of the hits.
It had a lot of the hits.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
It included all of our modern English letters, including j,
U or V and W. This wasn't a modern alphabet yet. However,
we do want to give a show out to everyone
who's encountered this firsthand in high school, in your high
school classroom, or perhaps in college, where students may still
(19:09):
to this day be forced to read the likes of Beowulf,
which I think is pretty cool. He's got a monster,
it's got a muscle man, our hero, Beowolf. But the
language is a bit let's just call it not a challenging.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Isn't even the right word? Yeah, Ben, Yeah, no.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
I propose that we collectively prank ourselves and Max get
in on this if you want. But we have included
a written Old English sample of the first part of
BeO Wolf. So here's what I'm thinking we'll all get
a little of this. Let's read part of it, and
let's just do our best. A lot of these characters
(19:50):
are unfamiliar, and then right after we will play a
clip of someone reading it accurately. Sound good.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Oh gosh, I love this game so much. Right, Okay, Ben,
you found this. You gotta start.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Okay, here we go. What the gardana ingarda gum singa
berm garfernoon wo die please eiliing frem.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Okay, what are you like? The the arm from twin Peaks.
It sounds like you're reading backwards. I am the arm.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Off sklid scaffing, scappiana, pritum monogum magpum made us said,
flash off your eggs soda. It's like sounds like Latin
eggs oda er la siur and nearest weird the s
funding he pas pro frey gibod Vaux underwelcoming.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yeah, let's do it all right, back you doing, you
do it so we all get it?
Speaker 6 (20:52):
Yeah, welcome underwelcoming, paw odd pat him egg.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Well yes, the betting dra just power through it.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Bro.
Speaker 7 (21:06):
I'm gonna offer hot not hind boom ban hot wow,
good scion.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
It actually gets easier to keep keep going, keep going.
That was the end. That was.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
All right, the arm yes, so we we hope you
enjoyed that, folks. Clearly we're having the time with it.
We're gonna take just a second and play, uh a
rendition of those lines as the boffins say they're supposed
to sound. Are we ready?
Speaker 7 (21:39):
Yest way, God, Dana and your dog.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
We did a perfect job.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
Whiss chilled shaving.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
We don't have the guitar, want to go through off eggs.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
So the old loss suit an artist?
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Pretty good, pretty good.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Hey, that's throw about him. That's my favorite word, right there?
Speaker 4 (22:16):
A shooter.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
That was good, That was good.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
All right, we're so good.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
No, that is not what that line says.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
That was good signing right there, boys, let me tell
you what that is not.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
How it's written, like well done, well done.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Other than that line, I think I was absolutely perfect.
So you were spot on. All thank you you're seven
all right.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Tough crowd, tough crowd.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I give you a nine to five then, thank you, sir.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
I appreciate that. I will pay you in bed bucks.
We can already tell you, guys, this is not the
English most people speak today. And I'm sorry that I
keep go fiing and giggling and stickert at this, but
I love that we were able to explore that with
(23:15):
with our audience. To get to modern English, we got
to go through Middle English. And this is still weird,
still weird, still very weird. This is a period of
English development that we owe largely to warfare, the Norman invasion.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
That's right, Shortly after the olding the Chaphabet was first
writ down writ large and or small.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
The Normans invaded.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Ten sixty six CE, and English as a language was
then at this point considered something of a I don't know,
a feature of the low. The low bore nobility, clergy, scholars,
and other top dogs. They were speaking in Latin, that
was the fan. The lads used to speak Norman or Latin.
(24:03):
But by the thirteenth century, when writing in English began
to become a bit more prominent, the language started to
reflect this these centuries of Norman conquest and rule.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Yeah, old English letters that used to be just for
the poor and the hoi poloi, things like tharn and
eight were replaced by the sound t h and then
ving or win eventually became.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Uh or w right and the other English letters were jettison, no,
no need go home. Get yeah, I don't even go home,
just jump in a well for all it. And this
stuff is definitely still challenging.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
And as we're going to see with I know what
you pulled here, Ben, I know this body.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Bits mitt it's your favorite part. It's so fun to say,
and it really does. Remember we were talking about, like,
you know, a language composed entirely or largely of consonants
is gonna have this gruff, like absolutely grinding grading kind
of quality. But when you introduce a lot of these
these you know, vowel sounds, you get a very sing
(25:12):
songy thing, and this Middle English really does kind of
drive that home. What we're talking about, of course, is
Chaucer's famous work that you were also probably forced to
read excerpts of in school, The Canterbury Tales.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Yes, yeah, and we are we are clearly delighted with
some big Friday energy to share with you our and
excerpt from our favorite part of The Canterbury Tales, which
was never completed. No, here's what I think. Let's have
you just for the fun man, let's have you give
(25:47):
us the excerpt from the Miller's tale the sauciest bit
in Middle English and the max if we could lean
on you, maybe give us the modern translation.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Ben, that's so generous, it makes be very happy. I
swear my big weird Friday energy will not go to waste.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
And again, folks, this is the Middle English version. You
can still hear the rhyme, but please listen carefully as
Noel continues.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yes, and listen for the dirty innuendos.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
There we go the window. She on death, and that
in haste have to quote she come off and speed
the faster, lest that our neighbors the espie a spy.
Speaker 8 (26:32):
Perhaps this absalom Gan whippy, his mouth full dry Dirk
was the night as peach or as call. And at
the window out she put down here hole and absalom
him feel no better anywheres. But with his mouth he
(26:53):
Kisseda here naked airs.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Air spelled e R s S.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Get the vibe. It was a big mistake he aired
in kissing her naked ass.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
And I don't want to you know. It's very I'm
going to be honest with you guys, very difficult for
me as a nerd to not jump in and finish
this in Middle English but so everyone understands as we're
getting to the English alphabet. Luckily, our super producer Max
has his own big yes and energy. Max, could you
(27:25):
give us the modern English translation of what we just heard,
and please please lean into the most ridiculous voice possible.
Speaker 6 (27:34):
Accents are okay, the windows, she undoes, and that in haste,
get done with it, said she Come on and hurry
up lest our neighbors as be thee.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
I guess we don't have a translation for that one.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Power through it.
Speaker 7 (27:50):
But this ab so lone wiped his mouth very draw
doc with the night as pitch or as the coal,
and at the window out she put her hole and
(28:11):
absolon to keep him happen dead, no better nor worse.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
But with his mouth he kissed herd naked ass.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
A plus ap plus.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
I don't know what that voice was, Max, I love it.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
It sounds like it terrified. It's a I'll tell you
who it is. It's a guy from the northern Peninsula
of Michigan who's talking to the afternoon regional news.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
I think it's a dude who finds us on our
canoe trip in the woods and tells me I got
a pretty mouth, right.
Speaker 6 (28:45):
I think it's your super producer trying to read a
English translation of Gipperish.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
You know, hey, we get We get the gist though, guys.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
It's says she sticks her out the window and make
some kiss kiss her on it, right in the right,
in the whole.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Oh, I'm so fabulous because you have racy stuff, chaucer,
you scamp, but butt jokes aside. We can clearly I'm
not above it.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
We can. You're believing it. In fact, yes, I'm up
there with it.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Yeah, we could clearly see and hear the similarities in
Middle English. Right, we're off to the races linguistically. Yet no,
old fellow ridiculous historians, we are not quite done. Middle
English is already the result of thousands of years of
warring cultures and translations and mistranslations and invasions. It still
(29:41):
needs one more revolution to reach what we call modern
English today. And this time the revolution is not warfare.
The revolution is technology.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Yeah, and the revolution will not be televised, but it
certainly will be broadcasts in a sense.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yes, we are going to learn more about the invention
of the printing press, and we will do that in
the second part of our weird exploration of the English
language and how it became a thing. No, Uh, you
and I are on the road pretty often, and uh
(30:22):
we have as everybody knows, we have a great love
of museums and libraries. And I gotta tell you still, man,
I am baffled by Old English, like I am baffled
by Beowulf. And I think we did an okay job
reading that.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Oh it was a delight to do it.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Ben, Would you say that there are some similarities between
Old English and Welsh? Yes, Like there's a lot of
those same weird phonemes that exist, and a lot of
like extra consonants and stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah, there's a lot of Uh, there's a lot of
script and uh sound the script to sound when you
look at it? You think you get there, buddy. As
as I've probably mentioned too often, I am still phenomenally
baffled by the way the Welsh used the letter F.
(31:13):
That's one, there's two f's And.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
What is it for? What is it? What is it
good for? A for sure?
Speaker 1 (31:22):
And speaking of F words, thank you so much to
everyone for tuning in joining us for part two of
the English Alphabet. Speaking of our favorite F word, big
big thanks to our pal Jonathan Strickland ak the quister.
Yeah Baby Jay, big big thanks of course as well
(31:43):
to our super producer and newest favorite voice actor, mister
Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Thanks to Alex Williams who composed our theme.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Christopher Aciotis needs the chef codes here in Spirits and
uh geez, well, we'll keep a short This is a
two part we can think the rest of them part two.
Thanks to you Ben for your linguistic sojourns and spelunkings
into the topic of the English alphabet and the wherefores
and the whys and the how tos of its creation.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yes, yes, uh vos who held to you which apparently
means being good.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Health and with hughes as well. Then we'll see you
next time, folks.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
for tuning in. Let's give a big shout out in
the English language to our super producer, mister Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
What'sh there? They are?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
There, they are. That's mister Noel Brown. I am Ben Bullen.
We are coming to you in a language called English.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Yeah, the English language, Modern English. Like the band We're
gonna stop the world and melt with all of you.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
There it is, there, it is, and that's an amazing
thing to do, because language itself is amazing one of
the cornerstones of all advanced human life. There are thousands
of languages, as we know, and many of them are
mutually unintelligible. But it's when you think about it, language
is the bedrock of society. Coupled with the absolutely Bonker's
(01:21):
idea of writing stuff down, you guys, language is something
like time travel, teleportation, telepathy, and necromancy all tied up
and one thoroughly ridiculous bow.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
I had no idea. It was so spooky, Ben.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
It's a little spooky, right, you know. Think about it, Noel.
The last time you read a piece by your favorite
dead author. That person from beyond the grave is communicating
directly with you.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yeah, it's true. I mean that is sort of the nature.
You always talk about the game of telephone. That is history,
but that applies to language as well, because language does
not exist in a vacuum. It was created by people
over the course of time, and it is an evolutionary
thing in and of itself.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
And sometimes the medium is the message.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Oh very Marshall mcluan of you. Yeah, the medium is
the massage. Shout out to that book and apologies to
the library. And I stole that from back.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
In the days.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So this week's series, Noel, we are exploring one language
in particular. It's the one we're speaking now. Spoiler. It
is a paradoxical, piratic mixtape, all kinds of weird mismashed sounds.
They're represented by an arcane collection of specific, squidly and
(02:43):
straight lines with a little handful of sprinkling, a dab
and a dash of punctuation marks. Collectively, we call this weird,
weird thing the English alphabet.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
So why don't we take this episode and I think
maybe a second episode to discuss exactly how this English
language alphabet specifically thing came about.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, let's see how we got there, and maybe, just
for a treat, we might talk about the future as well.
All right, right, okay, so what the heck is an
alphabet to begin with? I think it's fair for us
(03:27):
to say, to understand the English alphabet, we have to
understand the again cartoonishly bizarre idea of writing things down right.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
At its most basic level, all in alphabet is is
a set of you know, pictures to pictographs, I guess right, drawings, characters,
brushstrokes as in the case of Japanese characters, you know,
where there really is an art to it, and it's
very bespoken, handmade. That can of course be the case
with other alphabets as well. This is used to represent
(04:01):
in some cases actual concepts, you know, ideas, whole words
and phrases. But on its most basic level, in alphabet
is designed to represent the phonemic structure of a language. So,
in other words, certain lines and curves that comprise these
different characters are designed to let the reader know what
(04:24):
sound they're supposed to make out their mouths.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yeah, exactly, you nailed it. And then it also lets
you know what context occurs. How does this R sound
or how does this M or this in or this
B sound exist on its own, and how does it
tie into other sounds indicated before or after it. It's
(04:49):
an amazing process, especially when we realize how quickly this
happens for practiced readers, you know what I mean? Like, Oh,
we should also mention since we love etymology. The origin
of the English word alphabet is not technically from English.
It's a bit of a portmanteau, arriving from the first
(05:10):
two letters of the Greek alphabet alpha and beta, and
they stole that from somewhere else. As we'll see, it
was first used in its Latin form alphabetum, by a
guy named Tertullian and a guy named Saint Jerome because
he was one of the very many saints of the
(05:31):
Catholic Church.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Yes, but not all alphabets are created equal.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
There are some that have way more symbols than others.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
There's some that really kind of thrive on sort of
an economy of language type model.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Modern English. The idea not the band, but also the
band is.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
A Latin script alphabet comprised of twenty six characters, but
some writing systems take a different approach to, you know,
kind of creating this written mishmash sounds yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
For instance, let's consider the alternative system of the syllabary.
An example of this would be the Cherokee language. Written
symbols there are meant to represent syllables of sound, and
to your earlier point, Noel Japanese language uses at least
(06:22):
one form of syllabic writing as well. The oldest system
of writing anything is what we call the logogram from
the Greek logos or word and gramma quote that which
is drawn or written Chinese. To the earlier point, that's
a great example of this. Idiograms characters that represent full ideas,
(06:44):
and then you see earlier examples of this like the
Egyptian hieroglyphs or Quinea form.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
However, the biggest difference is that the symbols in an
alphabet and syllabic systems they represent sound directly. They don't
in and of themselves have any meaning, unless, of course,
you're using them as like exhibits like ABCD, etc. You
can of course use them that way. So you could,
(07:12):
for example, read the letter B and think, well, I
see that letter in a lot of things, but on
its own without any other letters. It is just a sound.
I'm going to need a little bit more than that
to communicate an entire idea or thought.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Just so, and if we look at the ancient history,
we'll see that writing is humanity's principle technology even now,
for collecting, manipulating and story data and transmitting information. It
is a crazy idea. It's classic human So it's no
surprise we talk a lot about parallel thought. It's no
(07:49):
surprise that this concept was invented or discovered multiple times
independently in the Near East, in China and throughout Mesoamerica.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
The Cunia form script, you know, collection of characters that
was created in Mesopotamia aka present day Iraq circa thirty
two hundred BCE, was very very first to the party,
the language party, and it's also the only writing system
that can be traced to actual prehistoric roots. Like its
(08:23):
earliest prehistoric origins, first writing was used as a tool
in order to help aid in things like math, and
that earliest form of writing itself actually dates back to
an eighth millennium BCE system of numbers using clay tablets
clay tokens consisting of multiple different shapes. So why don't
(08:44):
we go to our buddy, James Wright, an editor over
at International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
James Wrights rights, he does do that, Ben, he does
emailed it. Give us James writing, Ah.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yes, So James Wright says that you can trace, like
you were saying, Noel, the invention of kinea form over
a period of ten thousand years, from the prehistoric predecessor
to the present day alphabet, and James sees it as
a division of four phases of evolution. First, you have
(09:23):
the clay tokens we mentioned earlier, and they represent units
of goods. There are three dimensional tokens. People are literally
handing these back and forth. Then they get transformed into
two dimensional pictographic signs representations of the tokens without actually
(09:43):
needing to have the tokens. And again, for cartoonishly long
amount of time, this script was just very counting. It
was just for nerds. It didn't change until much later
when they started using phonetic signs to talk about the
names of individuals in that civilization. That's right, and like
(10:07):
those clay tablets we talked about the tokens. The pictographic
script we're talking about now actually served a very specific
kind of mathematical purpose in the practice of accounting, and
that's from thirty five hundred to three thousand bcees, so
it's a pretty ancient profession being an accountant. We had
phonetic signs that were introduced then to transcribe the names
(10:30):
of individual people. That marked a very important turning point
when writing started to actually emulate sounds, those phonemes that
we were talking about the way we hear language spoken.
And as a result, this kind of became applicable to
things beyond just counting. It became applicable to expressing all
manner of thoughts and ideas. With two dozen letters each
(10:54):
representing a single vocal sound, the alphabet perfectly represented a
rendition of human speech. It was able to do a
pretty good job of that.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
So after these concepts that we've kind of previously outlined ideography, logography,
I think I got that right, and syllabarries, this new
alphabet really was a massive step forward into integrating much
much more advanced ways of communicating ideas into a written form.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
One hundred percent, that's right.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Until this is going to happen often.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
It's gonna Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
So until the third millennium BCE or so, as we
were saying, writing is for accounting, and it really changes
as war, spiritual minded people in Sumerian civilization start using
some form of visual depiction or engraving for funerary inscriptions.
(12:02):
At every step in this evolution we see a steady
progression in the abstraction of data. So you start off saying,
here's a way to write, you know, the number seven.
Here's a way to write the number four, and if
you take four from seven, here's a way to write
the number three. Now we are talking about increasingly complex ideas,
(12:25):
all of which eventually lead us to the alphabets we know, recognize,
and practice today. So what happens next? How do we
get to the How do we get from a bunch
of nerdy boffins who are very good at numbers to
the modern alphabet. We've got some steps along the way.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
That's right, the rise of the English alphabet, building on
this foundation created by our ancient predecessors.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
The very first widely used alphabet adjacent ish esque thing
was developed by Semitic peoples, the Phoenicians. Does that make
Does that ring any bells? Anybody phonetics Phoenicians about seven
hundred years later, right, consisting of twenty two letters, all consonants.
At this point, this Semitic language spread all throughout the
(13:14):
Mediterranean region, and that includes the Levat, North Africa, Southern Europe,
and the Iberian Peninsula. The Greeks at this point built
further on Phoenician alphabet by adding vowel sounds. Remember we
only previously had consonants.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
That's exactly very guttural, right, that would create a guttural thing.
And if you think about it, the vowels are what.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Makes language a little more mollifluous, right, a little more
melodic beautiful.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yeah, that only happens about seven fifty BCE. The are Pals,
the Greeks, they took letters from this Phoenician alphabet ish
thing and they said, look, these these certain symbols represent
stuff that does not exist in Greek speech. So we're
(14:02):
going to change them, and we're going to make them
our new vowels, our predecessors of aeio U. And sometimes
times why sometimes sometimes why why is it tricker? What
this is the creation of the first true alphabet, meaning
both vowels and consonants are explicit symbols in a single script.
(14:24):
In the early years, we already see fragmentation. There were
so many variants of the Greek alphabet, and as a result,
many other different alphabets evolved from these differing systems. We
see this time and time again. Dude, everybody wanted a
single system of language, but they all wanted it to
(14:47):
be the one they had made.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
What could go wrong, what could go wrong, and many things.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
It turns out the Latins that later were known by
the Romans, of course, you know, with their sandals and whatnot,
they were super into this idea and they you know,
this is another language thing that happens, a lot of pinching,
you know, picking and choosing from other cultures and other alphabets.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
They did this from the Greeks, as they did with
lots of other things. We know. The Romans were notorious
idea thieves, but they did.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
You know, they did improve a lot of things, wouldn't
you say, Ben, But they're spin on it.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah. They also looked at Etruscan civilization and they said,
we like what those folks are doing. Let's take this
Grecian alphabet and let's add the letters F and S
just like our friends down the way, and ancient Latin
did not have the letters G, J, V or U
(15:44):
as they will call it, W, Y and z. But
by about the third century CE, the Roman alphabet started
to look very similar to what we would call modern English.
They had every letter except for J U or V
and W and V and you just by the way
(16:05):
ridiculous historians, V and you have a cartoonish shared history.
Both were used throughout the Middle Ages, and until relatively
recently they were considered a single letter, so you kind
of had to read on context. That's why every Dan
Brown esque Indiana Jones esque film you see that has
(16:29):
old Latin.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Is it a V?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Is it a W?
Speaker 1 (16:32):
That That's why people were just freestyling exactly right.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
The history of writing in Britain actually, however, begins with
the Anglo Saxons, and that was in the fifth century CE.
They had significant ties to Scandinavia and other cultures from
the North Sea regions. The ancient Anglo Saxons had a
form of writing called oh my goodness futhorc.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
You gotta say it with your chestthorp.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
It's like a rodos yes just right, dragon shouts shout out. Indeed,
this k of dragons shout out. It was a It
totally is, man, It's a runic language. That's what the
dragon shouts were. If you've ever played the game, which
is a lot of fun, although it pisses me off, man,
because I'm at a place again where I'm gonna have
to start over because I've gotten to a game breaking
(17:26):
place in my save and my old saves are too old,
and I just am not gonna I don't know if
I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Man, I love the game so much, but it keeps
letting me down.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
It's okay, you'll always end up being a stealth archer.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
That's true. I am a little bit of a you
know that.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Where the game takes you. I mean, flexible ruines kept
getting added to this foothork and when what we see
is a pretty stunning evolution. Fouthort just appeared in England
with twenty six character and by the time it went
out of fashion around the eleventh century Common era, it
(18:06):
already had thirty three characters total. So people kept adding
rooms to depict abstract ideas. And you know, around this
time too, there's event diagram always happens with language. So
if we go back from the eleventh century to the
seventh century. We'll see that the Latin alphabet was introduced
(18:28):
by Christian missionaries and it began to take hold. The
first formal list of all the letters or all the
symbols or characters in the Old English alphabet comes around
ten eleven CE. It had a lot of the hits.
It had a lot of the hits.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
It included all of our modern English letters, including j,
U or V and W. This wasn't a modern alphabet yet. However,
we do want to give a show out to everyone
who's encountered this firsthand in high school, in your high
school classroom, or perhaps in college, where students may still
(19:09):
to this day be forced to read the likes of Beowulf,
which I think is pretty cool. He's got a monster,
it's got a muscle man, our hero, Beowolf. But the
language is a bit let's just call it not a challenging.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Isn't even the right word? Yeah, Ben, Yeah, no.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
I propose that we collectively prank ourselves and Max get
in on this if you want. But we have included
a written Old English sample of the first part of
BeO Wolf. So here's what I'm thinking we'll all get
a little of this. Let's read part of it, and
let's just do our best. A lot of these characters
(19:50):
are unfamiliar, and then right after we will play a
clip of someone reading it accurately. Sound good.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Oh gosh, I love this game so much. Right, Okay, Ben,
you found this. You gotta start.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Okay, here we go. What the gardana ingarda gum singa
berm garfernoon wo die please eiliing frem.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Okay, what are you like? The the arm from twin Peaks.
It sounds like you're reading backwards. I am the arm.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Off sklid scaffing, scappiana, pritum monogum magpum made us said,
flash off your eggs soda. It's like sounds like Latin
eggs oda er la siur and nearest weird the s
funding he pas pro frey gibod Vaux underwelcoming.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yeah, let's do it all right, back you doing, you
do it so we all get it?
Speaker 6 (20:52):
Yeah, welcome underwelcoming, paw odd pat him egg.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
Well yes, the betting dra just power through it.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Bro.
Speaker 7 (21:06):
I'm gonna offer hot not hind boom ban hot wow,
good scion.
Speaker 4 (21:18):
It actually gets easier to keep keep going, keep going.
That was the end. That was.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
All right, the arm yes, so we we hope you
enjoyed that, folks. Clearly we're having the time with it.
We're gonna take just a second and play, uh a
rendition of those lines as the boffins say they're supposed
to sound. Are we ready?
Speaker 7 (21:39):
Yest way, God, Dana and your dog.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
We did a perfect job.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
Whiss chilled shaving.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
We don't have the guitar, want to go through off eggs.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
So the old loss suit an artist?
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Pretty good, pretty good.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Hey, that's throw about him. That's my favorite word, right there?
Speaker 4 (22:16):
A shooter.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
That was good, That was good.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
All right, we're so good.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
No, that is not what that line says.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
That was good signing right there, boys, let me tell
you what that is not.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
How it's written, like well done, well done.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Other than that line, I think I was absolutely perfect.
So you were spot on. All thank you you're seven
all right.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Tough crowd, tough crowd.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I give you a nine to five then, thank you, sir.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
I appreciate that. I will pay you in bed bucks.
We can already tell you, guys, this is not the
English most people speak today. And I'm sorry that I
keep go fiing and giggling and stickert at this, but
I love that we were able to explore that with
(23:15):
with our audience. To get to modern English, we got
to go through Middle English. And this is still weird,
still weird, still very weird. This is a period of
English development that we owe largely to warfare, the Norman invasion.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
That's right, Shortly after the olding the Chaphabet was first
writ down writ large and or small.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
The Normans invaded.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Ten sixty six CE, and English as a language was
then at this point considered something of a I don't know,
a feature of the low. The low bore nobility, clergy, scholars,
and other top dogs. They were speaking in Latin, that
was the fan. The lads used to speak Norman or Latin.
(24:03):
But by the thirteenth century, when writing in English began
to become a bit more prominent, the language started to
reflect this these centuries of Norman conquest and rule.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Yeah, old English letters that used to be just for
the poor and the hoi poloi, things like tharn and
eight were replaced by the sound t h and then
ving or win eventually became.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Uh or w right and the other English letters were jettison, no,
no need go home. Get yeah, I don't even go home,
just jump in a well for all it. And this
stuff is definitely still challenging.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
And as we're going to see with I know what
you pulled here, Ben, I know this body.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Bits mitt it's your favorite part. It's so fun to say,
and it really does. Remember we were talking about, like,
you know, a language composed entirely or largely of consonants
is gonna have this gruff, like absolutely grinding grading kind
of quality. But when you introduce a lot of these
these you know, vowel sounds, you get a very sing
(25:12):
songy thing, and this Middle English really does kind of
drive that home. What we're talking about, of course, is
Chaucer's famous work that you were also probably forced to
read excerpts of in school, The Canterbury Tales.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Yes, yeah, and we are we are clearly delighted with
some big Friday energy to share with you our and
excerpt from our favorite part of The Canterbury Tales, which
was never completed. No, here's what I think. Let's have
you just for the fun man, let's have you give
(25:47):
us the excerpt from the Miller's tale the sauciest bit
in Middle English and the max if we could lean
on you, maybe give us the modern translation.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Ben, that's so generous, it makes be very happy. I
swear my big weird Friday energy will not go to waste.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
And again, folks, this is the Middle English version. You
can still hear the rhyme, but please listen carefully as
Noel continues.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yes, and listen for the dirty innuendos.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
There we go the window. She on death, and that
in haste have to quote she come off and speed
the faster, lest that our neighbors the espie a spy.
Speaker 8 (26:32):
Perhaps this absalom Gan whippy, his mouth full dry Dirk
was the night as peach or as call. And at
the window out she put down here hole and absalom
him feel no better anywheres. But with his mouth he
(26:53):
Kisseda here naked airs.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
Air spelled e R s S.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Get the vibe. It was a big mistake he aired
in kissing her naked ass.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
And I don't want to you know. It's very I'm
going to be honest with you guys, very difficult for
me as a nerd to not jump in and finish
this in Middle English but so everyone understands as we're
getting to the English alphabet. Luckily, our super producer Max
has his own big yes and energy. Max, could you
(27:25):
give us the modern English translation of what we just heard,
and please please lean into the most ridiculous voice possible.
Speaker 6 (27:34):
Accents are okay, the windows, she undoes, and that in haste,
get done with it, said she Come on and hurry
up lest our neighbors as be thee.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
I guess we don't have a translation for that one.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Power through it.
Speaker 7 (27:50):
But this ab so lone wiped his mouth very draw
doc with the night as pitch or as the coal,
and at the window out she put her hole and
(28:11):
absolon to keep him happen dead, no better nor worse.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
But with his mouth he kissed herd naked ass.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
A plus ap plus.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
I don't know what that voice was, Max, I love it.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
It sounds like it terrified. It's a I'll tell you
who it is. It's a guy from the northern Peninsula
of Michigan who's talking to the afternoon regional news.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
I think it's a dude who finds us on our
canoe trip in the woods and tells me I got
a pretty mouth, right.
Speaker 6 (28:45):
I think it's your super producer trying to read a
English translation of Gipperish.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
You know, hey, we get We get the gist though, guys.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
It's says she sticks her out the window and make
some kiss kiss her on it, right in the right,
in the whole.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
Oh, I'm so fabulous because you have racy stuff, chaucer,
you scamp, but butt jokes aside. We can clearly I'm
not above it.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
We can. You're believing it. In fact, yes, I'm up
there with it.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Yeah, we could clearly see and hear the similarities in
Middle English. Right, we're off to the races linguistically. Yet no,
old fellow ridiculous historians, we are not quite done. Middle
English is already the result of thousands of years of
warring cultures and translations and mistranslations and invasions. It still
(29:41):
needs one more revolution to reach what we call modern
English today. And this time the revolution is not warfare.
The revolution is technology.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Yeah, and the revolution will not be televised, but it
certainly will be broadcasts in a sense.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Yes, we are going to learn more about the invention
of the printing press, and we will do that in
the second part of our weird exploration of the English
language and how it became a thing. No, Uh, you
and I are on the road pretty often, and uh
(30:22):
we have as everybody knows, we have a great love
of museums and libraries. And I gotta tell you still, man,
I am baffled by Old English, like I am baffled
by Beowulf. And I think we did an okay job
reading that.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Oh it was a delight to do it.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Ben, Would you say that there are some similarities between
Old English and Welsh? Yes, Like there's a lot of
those same weird phonemes that exist, and a lot of
like extra consonants and stuff.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah, there's a lot of Uh, there's a lot of
script and uh sound the script to sound when you
look at it? You think you get there, buddy. As
as I've probably mentioned too often, I am still phenomenally
baffled by the way the Welsh used the letter F.
(31:13):
That's one, there's two f's And.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
What is it for? What is it? What is it
good for? A for sure?
Speaker 1 (31:22):
And speaking of F words, thank you so much to
everyone for tuning in joining us for part two of
the English Alphabet. Speaking of our favorite F word, big
big thanks to our pal Jonathan Strickland ak the quister.
Yeah Baby Jay, big big thanks of course as well
(31:43):
to our super producer and newest favorite voice actor, mister
Max Williams.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Thanks to Alex Williams who composed our theme.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Christopher Aciotis needs the chef codes here in Spirits and
uh geez, well, we'll keep a short This is a
two part we can think the rest of them part two.
Thanks to you Ben for your linguistic sojourns and spelunkings
into the topic of the English alphabet and the wherefores
and the whys and the how tos of its creation.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yes, yes, uh vos who held to you which apparently
means being good.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Health and with hughes as well. Then we'll see you
next time, folks.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
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