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Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial]

@deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy
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English is weirder than you think. A weekly dive into the hidden history of everyday words. Click to read Dead Language Society, by Colin Gorrie, a […] 🌉 bridged from 🌐 deadlanguagesociety.com: fed.brid.gy/web/deadlanguagesociety…

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Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 30/09/2026
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“Corn” is a weird word
Not all corn comes on cobs
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 23/09/2026
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What have the Normans ever done for us?
Jumping on the Bayeux bandwagon to talk about Norman French
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 16/09/2026
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Against Cicerofishing
Welcome to the Substack of the 16th century
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 09/09/2026
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My kingdom for a *h₁éḱwos!
How work, war, and empire renamed the horse
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 05/08/2026
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Medieval beach reads
How to read Middle English and Scots texts in the original
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 29/07/2026
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Does your name belong in the Odyssey?
The ancient formula still alive in “Richard” and “Audrey”
010
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 22/07/2026
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I’m writing a book!
The story of English before it was English
010
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 15/07/2026
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The fatal letter
The near-death and resurrection of “h”
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 08/07/2026
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“Weird” is a weird word
From Beowulf to Shakespeare to you
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Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 01/07/2026
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The long shadow of the Celtic languages
Everything we can learn from the word ‘rich’
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 24/06/2026
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Why the word “mead” shows up in Chinese
Honey words turn out to be rather sticky
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 17/06/2026
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Why we love 19th-century writing
And why we don’t write like that anymore
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 16/06/2026
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Book Club 4. 1998–2530
The games come to an end
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 10/06/2026
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When will Modern English end?
Or is it already over?
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 03/06/2026
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There’s no such thing as g-droppin’
That apostrophe is a lie
011
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 02/06/2026
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Book Club 3. 1126–1197
Three hunts outdoors, three hunts indoors
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 27/05/2026
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How to read Beowulf (and actually enjoy it)
It’s not really about the monsters
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 20/05/2026
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English has no future
Will, shall, and other mysteries
111
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 19/05/2026
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Book Club 2. 491–1125
Gawain's ride north
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 13/05/2026
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The ancient logic of “snuck”
Bad grammar or living fossil of Proto-Germanic?
001
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 06/05/2026
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Why you’re not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition
And why you do it anyway
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 05/05/2026
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Book Club 1: 1–490
Enter the Green Knight
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 29/04/2026
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The Canterbury Commute
Verses composed in Middle English while waiting for the 7:42 train
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 22/04/2026
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How to pronounce Middle English
A complete guide + audio
011
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 15/04/2026
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Why you should read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
This spring’s book club pick
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 08/04/2026
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A bluffer’s guide to etymology
How to guess the age and origin of any English word
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 01/04/2026
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Why the verb “to be” is so irregular
The answer is six thousand years old
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 25/03/2026
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The age when English could do anything
And why we wouldn't have Shakespeare without it
001
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 18/03/2026
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No, Shakespeare didn’t invent those words
Bias, evidence, and the Oxford English Dictionary
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 11/03/2026
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Why English spelling actually does make sense
English spelling is optimal, from a certain point of view
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 04/03/2026
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Leave the em-dash alone
This writing panic has a 500-year precedent
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 25/02/2026
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Why the worst idea in linguistics won’t die
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is mostly wrong
000
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 18/02/2026
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How far back in time can you understand English?
An experiment in language change
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Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 17/02/2026
[Audio] [Original post on deadlanguagesociety.com]
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What happens when languages collide?
A conversation with Daniel W. Hieber
010
Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack [Unofficial] @deadlanguagesociety.com.web.brid.gy · 11/02/2026
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1066 didn't change English (but 1250 did)
How all those French words actually got into English
010