The pronunciation of a language is always changing. Its sounds don’t change randomly. For instance, vowels typically shift ever so slightly due to tiny variations in articulation that arise and spread. Over the centuries, though, the outcome can be huge. Click my new video to hear and see how the Proto-Germanic word *staumaz became English ‘steam’ over the course of more than two millennia. Interestingly, what we call the Great Vowel Shift (1400-1700) was only part of the extensive evolution of