Anglo-Saxon

Often called OLD ENGLISH. It extends roughly from A.D. 450-1100, and in space covers the area of Germanic conquest in Great Britain, excluding the Celtic population. It is a Low German dialect, nearest allied to the Frisian, and was brought to Britain by piratical settlers from the lower Elbe and the Cimbrian peninsula (Schleswig-Holstein). Its dialects are the Northumbrian (Humber to Forth). Mercian (southward to Thames). West-Saxon (south of Thames), and Kentish (in Kent and po ibly Surrey). The Angles of the continent brought the Northumbrian and Mercian dialects, which are often grouped as Anglian, and furnished eventually the names England and English. The Saxons (as in names like E ex, We ex) brought their dialect, except Kentish, which is due to the Jutes. Anglo-Saxon words are recorded from 679; but the earliest literature was Northumbrian, mainly preserved, however, in later West-Saxon copies. The language was inflected, had fairly abundant forms of declension and conjugation, and was rough, strong, and somewhat unwieldy. It forms to-day the bone and sinew of the ENGLISH LANGUAGE IMG:content-0177.png:[blocks in formation]