What do Roman legions, Viking raiders, and Norman knights have in common? They all left deep marks on the English language. In this episode, Dr. Colin Gorrie—linguist and creator of the Dead Language Society newsletter—joins us to explore how centuries of war shaped the words we use today.

We take you from Julius Caesar’s campaigns in Gaul to the Viking invasions of Anglo-Saxon England, where Norse settlers in the Danelaw region introduced everyday words like sky, egg, and they. Then we move to 1066 and the Norman Conquest, when William the Conqueror’s French-speaking court transformed English once again, injecting a flood of legal, political, and cultural vocabulary—from court and jury to dinner and beef.

Dr. Gorrie breaks down how conquest, colonization, and cultural blending forged modern English, why it sounds so different from its Germanic roots, and how power and language evolve side by side. Whether you're a language nerd, a history buff, or just curious why English is such a chaotic blend of words and rules, this is a must-listen.

Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome to Why Wars Happened

00:49 – Meet Dr. Colin Gorrie

01:22 – How War Shapes Language

03:25 – The Norman Conquest: English Under French Rule

04:24 – Rome’s Influence on Gaul’s Language

07:11 – The Franks and the Germanic Roots of French

14:41 – The Danelaw: Norse Meets Anglo-Saxon

22:52 – Borrowed Words from Conflict and Trade

26:31 – 1066: The Norman Takeover of English

27:26 – French Vocabulary Floods English

28:47 – The Fall of Old English, Rise of Middle English

31:36 – The Great Vowel Shift and Language Change

35:58 – Vulgar Latin’s Lingering Legacy

40:21 – War, Trade, and Linguistic Crossroads

47:05 – Should Language Be Prescriptive or Descriptive?

51:00 – Wrapping Up: The Deep History of English

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INTERVIEW: The Linguistic Legacy of Wars: From Caesar to the Normans with Dr. Colin Gorrie

Hey guys, welcome back to the Why Wars Happened History Podcast, where you learn about the causes of wars and things like, why did it happen? Was it inevitable? Who was involved?

Sometimes I go back hundreds of years just so we can understand what happened in our narrative episodes covering the long course of a war and the background of the war. And if you want to talk more about war, we also have authors, historians, war generals, royalty, actors, filmmakers, a whole bunch of people come on as guests and we talk about everything about before, during, and after war. So let's go!

The Why Wars Happened History Podcast covers The American Revolution, World War I, World War II, Medieval Wars in England, The Habsburg Empire, The War in Iraq, Scottish wars, The War of the Roses, The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Cold War, The Thirty Years War, The Hundred Years War, The American Civil War, and many others.

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