Germanic settlement of England. The Anglo-Saxon regions.

The 5th c was the age of increased Germanic expansion: about the middle of the country several West-Germanic Tribes overran Britain and by 6th c.had colonised most of the island. According to Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, the invaders came in 449 A.D. under the leadership of two kings. Hengist and Horsa; they, had been invited by a British king, Vortigern, as assistants in the local war, but soon dispossessed their hosts: invaders came in multitude_ in families, clans to settle in the occupied territories. Invaders came from western subdivision of the Germ. tribes. According to BEDE, the newcomers were of the 3 strongest races of Germany, the Saxons, the Angles and the Jutes. Actually, the origin and the linguistic affiliation of the Jutes appears uncertain: some historians define them as a Frankish-tribe, others doubt the participation and their very existence, and name the Frisians as the 3d party in the invasion. uncertain, whether the early settlers belonged to separate tribes, Saxons and Angles or constituted 2 mixed waves of invaders, differing in the place and time of arrival. They were called Angles and Saxons by the Romans and by the Celts but preferred to call themselves Angelcyn (English people) and applied this name to the conquered territories Angelcynnesl land (`land of the English’)

FIRST WAVE -Jutes or the Frisians- extreme south-east: Kent and the Isle of Wight

SECOND WAVE-mostly Saxons-expanded westwards across Frisia to the Rhine and to Normandy, then to Britain by way of the Thames and the south coast and both banks of the Thames and, depending on location, called South Saxons, West Saxons and East Saxons, consolidated into petty kingdoms, most powerful-Wessex. the kingdom of West Saxons.

THIRD WAVE - The Angles-from southern Danemark and lower valley of the Elbe; landed on east coast and moved to the central part of the island: founded large kingdoms and absorbed weaker neighbors: East Anglia. Mercia, and Northumbria.

Result: killed and enslaved the Britons. drove them to distant parts of the country. The Britons found refuge in the mountainous districts of Cornwall and Wales: some fled to Armorice (later Small Brittany or Bretagne in mod. France). Celtic tribes remained infact only in Scotland and Ireland. As invaders prevailed over the natives so far as language was concerned: the linguistic conquest was complete: West Germ. tongues came to be spoken all over Britain with the exception of a few distant regions where Celts were in the majority: Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. -

Geograph. separation + mixture of people=major factors in linguistic differentiation and the formation of lang-s. Being cut off from related Germ. tongues the closely related group of West Germ dialects developed into a separate Germanic language, English. That is why, the Germanic settlement of Britain can be regarded as the beginning of the independent history of the English language.

First the Germans formed 7 kingdoms (NorthUmbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Wessex, Sassex, Essex, Kent). Later was formed 4 kingdoms: Kent, Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex. The 4 kingdoms at various times secured superiority and they constantly thought with each other. The supremacy of Kent lasted until the early 7^th century. The 7^th and the 8^th century weatnest of temporary rise of Northumbraia, then they was a balance of power of 3 main kingdoms (Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex). Then Mercia dominated, then Wessex had supremacy over Sassex and Kent. Then in the early 9^th century Mercia was conquered by Wessex. The Germanic tribes spoke the dialect which were closely related and belonged to the West Germanic subgroup. Their common origin and their separation from other G/L on the continent as well as evolution of their languages resulted in the appearance of a single language – English. There were 3 main dialects: Kentish (territory of Kent and in the Irland of White. It developed from the language of Jutes and Frisians); West-Saxson (it was spoken in the rest of the England and south of the river Thames, and some more places); Mercia (it was the dialect of England, central region); Nothumbrian (it was anglian dialect, it was to the north from the river Umbria). But of course the bounders of the dialects were movable. They penetrated into each other.