Dead Language Society | Colin Gorrie | Substack

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Weekly Newsletter

The dead language tier list

What I learned studying 7 historical languages

Jan 7 • Colin Gorrie

“Christmas” is a weird word

Merry Sending of the Smeared One!

Dec 24, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

How debt shaped the way we speak

And what it shows about how language works

Dec 10, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

Why people feel entitled to correct your grammar online

A natural history of the language police

Nov 26, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

The origin of nothing

Why negative words start with ‘n’

Nov 12, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

What is a Hallow, anyway?

The linguistic mysteries of "Halloween"

Oct 29, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

Dead Language Society

Dead Language Society

A guided tour through the history of English and its relatives.

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Members-Only Articles

Were Old Norse and Old English a single language?

I say hām, you say heimr, let's call the whole thing off.

Jan 17 • Colin Gorrie

Why people fail at learning languages

And how you can do it better in 2026

Jan 3 • Colin Gorrie

European languages are exotic

Blame it on the “Dark Ages”

Dec 20, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

The wild world of grammatical gender

Beyond masculine, feminine, and neuter

Dec 6, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

The English language’s wild century

And those who tried to resist it

Nov 22, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

How the letter E almost ruined English poetry

Time erodes all things, even Chaucer

Nov 8, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

How to end a sentence with style

Cadence in English prose from Gibbon to Orwell

Oct 25, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

How iambic pentameter really works

And why it works so well in English

Oct 11, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

Weird Words

“Christmas” is a weird word

Merry Sending of the Smeared One!

Dec 24, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

“God” is a weird word

Two competing divine etymologies

Oct 15, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

“Big” is a weird word

Etymology and the limits of explanation

Sep 10, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

“Boy” is a weird word

From baby talk to term of abuse

Jul 30, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

Beowulf Book Club

1:44:17

Beowulf Book Club 6: 2592–3182

Beowulf and the dragon

Dec 19, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

1:38:15

Beowulf Book Club 5: 1963–2591

War, war, and more war

Dec 5, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

1:41:04

Beowulf Book Club 4: 1396–1962

Of monsters and melting swords

Oct 10, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

1:31:55

Beowulf Book Club 3: 916–1396

Enter Grendel's mother

Sep 12, 2025 • Colin Gorrie