The Anglo-Saxons

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

Old English was divided into four main dialects: West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian and Kentish.
The term Anglo-Saxon is from writings going back to the time of King Alfred the Great, who seems to have frequently used the title rex Anglorum Saxonum or rex Angul-Saxonum (king of the English Saxons).[5]
The Old English terms �nglisc and Angelcynn ("Angle-kin", gens Anglorum) when they are first attested had already lost their original sense of referring to the Angles to the exclusion of the Saxons, and in their earliest recorded sense refers to the nation of Germanic peoples who settled England and southern Scotland in and after the 5th century.[citation needed]
The indigenous British people, who wrote in both Latin and Welsh, referred to these invaders as Saxones or Saeson � the latter is still used today in the Welsh word for English people;[6] in the Scottish Gaelic word for English people, saesonach; and in the Irish word for English people, Sasanach.
The term Angli ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

CITE THIS PAGE: