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

This is episode 76, the gender problem.

In this episode, we're going to look at the events leading up to the period of English

history known as the anarchy.

During this period, some of the traditional distinctions between the genders was starting

to break down.

Politically, England was preparing to be ruled by a queen for the first time.

Henry I was trying to end the All Boys Club that had been the English monarchy.

And he was meeting a lot of resistance in the process.

But gender wasn't just an issue in politics, it was also an issue in language.

For more than five centuries, Old English had maintained the traditional distinction between

masculine and feminine nouns.

But now those distinctions were also starting to disappear.

English was quickly dropping the entire concept of so-called grammatical gender.

So this time, we'll look at the changing role of gender in 12th century England.

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

And you can always reach me directly by email at Kevin at historyofenglishpodcast.com.

And last time, I mentioned that I was interested in collecting voice samples for future episodes

of the podcast.

And many of you were kind enough to record your accent and send it to me.

I received responses from all over the world.

And I would love to have more, especially if you speak with a non-standard or regional

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