ANGLO-SAXON LANGUAGE AND LIT ERATURE. The term Anglo-Saxon is employ ed, in popular speech and to some extent among scholars, to designate the language of the Ger manic peoples in England before the coming of the Normans (1066). Such, however, was not the usage of those who wrote in the language. Alfred, _Elfric. and others repeatedly called it Enylise, i.e.. English. True, the expressions Anyli Saxones and Saxones Angli. i.e.. English Saxons. occur in modi.eval Latin literature, but they were used to distinguish the Saxons in Eng land from those on the Continent. It was not until the revival of interest in England's earliest bistoryand literature, which dates from Camden's Britannia (1586). that the compound "Anglo Saxon" made its appearance, to denote. without any reference to their Continental kinsmen. the entire English people and their language. This designation was generally followed by historians and philologists down to 1875. Since then an
increasing number of them have adopted the usage of King Alfred. To the earliest period in the history of the English language they have given the name Old English. The term Anglo Saxon, it is argued. is misleading; for it seems to imply that our language before the Norman conquest was not English. It is, of course, ad mitted that the English language underwent great phonetic and inflectional changes in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; and yet Eng lish has always remained English. On this con tinuity in the development of our speech, the proper emphasis is laid by the term Old English. For this and other reasons, it. has seemed best to treat the so-called Anglo-Saxon language and lit erature under ENGLISH LANGUAGE, and ENGLISH LITERATURE.