Welcome to the History of English Podcast, a podcast about the history of the English

language.

This is episode 155, back to basics.

In this episode, we're going to explore two parallel trends that emerged in England

in the 1550s.

Inquistically, several prominent scholars tried to stem the flow of loan words into English

by returning the language to its Anglo-Saxon roots.

They argued that speakers should abandon their growing reliance on Latin and Greek words,

and they should focus more on the native vocabulary of the language.

Meanwhile, the government of England was also rolling back the clock.

Henry VIII's daughter Mary became queen, and she was eager to do away with the Protestant

reforms that had been adopted during the reigns of her father and brother.

She brought back Catholicism, and that meant that Latin came back with it.

Along the way, her persecution of Protestants left a brutal legacy, and a well-known nickname,

Bloody Mary.

So this time, we'll explore those attempts to turn back the clock and go back to basics.

But before we begin, let me remind you that the website for the podcast is HistoryofEnglishPodcast.com,

and you can sign up to support the podcast and get bonus episodes at patreon.com slash

HistoryofEnglish.

Now this time, we're going to look at an attempt by certain scholars in Tutor England to push

back against the changing nature of English in the 1500s.

As we've seen in prior episodes, English was borrowing a lot of words from Latin and

...