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

This is Episode 81, Love Songs and Trubodores.

In this episode, we're going to turn our attention south to southern France.

Some important developments were taking place there, and those developments were destined

to shape the political and literary history of Europe.

A new type of courtly culture was developing in southern France, and that culture was

about to spread northward to northern France and beyond.

And when that culture crossed the English Channel in the mid-1100s, it set the stage for

a political and cultural revolution within England itself.

That culture brought new rulers, new standards of behavior, new words, and a new type of

literature.

So this time, we'll explore the origins of the Trubodores, courtly love, romance, and

Eleanor of Aquatain.

But before we begin, let me remind you that the website for the podcast is History of

EnglishPodcast.com.

And you can always reach me directly by email at Kevin at History of EnglishPodcast.com.

And I'm on Twitter at English HIST POD.

So let's turn to this episode.

And this time, I want to explore several important developments which shaped the history of

England and the history of English literature.

In this podcast, I try to take a very broad approach to the history of English.

I like to explore the history of words and the evolution of English grammar and phonetics.

...