Lingua Anglosaxonica
The Birth of English
In the fifth and sixth centuries three Germanic peoples-the jutes, the Angles and the Saxons- invaded England. They spoke dialects so nearly similar that they could understand each other. Those peoples of Britain formed an ethnic whole, and were named Saxons. However, they were sometimes called Angles At the end of the sixth century, Pope Gregory 1 uses only the name Angli.
The Roman missionaries used Gregory's term, Angli. It was probably from the official language of the church that the Jutes and Saxons learned to regard themselves part of the " Angle Kindred" ( Anglolcynn, in Latin Anglorum).
The political dominant power of the Angle kingdoms helped to ensure the adoption of the general name, Angles. In the early years of the eighth century, Bede uses Angli or gens Anglorum for the whole people in Britain. He calls their language sermo Anglicus.
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