I think it was earlier this week, or maybe last week, that someone on one of the frontpage posts recommended "The History of English Podcast".

I haven't finished the first episode yet, but it's already seeming promising and I know I'm going to continue with it.

In that first episode (which is basically an introduction), the host explains that the history of the English language can be divided into three periods: Old English, Middle English, and New English.

After establishing that there are three periods, he asks where we think Shakespeare falls, and I immediately thought it had to be Middle English.

Then the host proceeded to say he wouldn’t be surprised if most listeners guessed Old or Middle English—and that he wouldn’t be surprised at all if nobody guessed correctly. Because Shakespeare’s plays are actually classified as New English!

I smiled in surprise.

But he explained that if you can more or less understand the English being written or spoken, then it still falls under New English. The King James Version of the Bible is considered New English too.

Keep in mind, Shakespeare wrote his plays between 1589 and 1613.

The King James Bible was published in 1611.

So when I opened that link in this thread’s header and realized I couldn’t understand a damn thing, it all suddenly made sense!

The History of English Podcast gets much better once he gets into the groove of things and I'd definitely recommend sticking with it. I love all the random fun facts that come in most episodes, like where idioms came from, meaning behind the names of the days of the week, and how the word for hospital relates to Christians pilgrimaging to the Holy Land.

I've seen this recommended a few times here, and I've listened since the beginning. I'd recommend it. But it would be hard to catch up after nearly 14 years and 187 episodes (probably averaging an hour?) - I wonder if there's a shorter history of English somewhere.