![]() In Middle English, the first vowel, originally pronounced (ĕ) in Old English, changed further and became the familiar (ĭ) of today, as reflected in the occasional spellings Ingland and Inglish. By the earliest recorded Old English, this had changed to Englisc. ![]() The speech of the three tribes was conflated in the same way: they all spoke what would have been called *Anglisc, or "Anglish," as it were. Early on, the Angles enjoyed a rise to power that must have made them seem more important than the other two tribes, for all three tribes are indiscriminately referred to in early documents as Angles. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes were the three Germanic tribes that emigrated from what is now Denmark and northern Germany and settled in England around the fourth century ad. The latter first appears as Englaland around the year 1000 and means "the land of the Engle," that is, the Angles. ![]() But in fact the language name is found long before the country name. Word History: English is derived from England, one would think.
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