Reply #97: 'English' comes from 'Angle', who came over with the Saxons [View All]

[muriel_volestrangler]

starting in the 5th century, after the Romans had left Britain. They orginated in the northern part of the European continent (as in , that's as far back as their whereabouts can be traced). That's why we talk about 'Anglo-Saxon'. That's why English is a Germanic language, as opposed to Welsh, which is Celtic. The people who inhabited Britain before the Romans invaded were the Britons, who were Celts. They retained control of Wales when the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded, and their language was retained there (in an allied form, it was also retained as Cornish, where they also held out for longer against the Saxons etc.; many Cornish placenames are similar to Welsh ones).

The Angles' religion before Christianity was allied to the Norse religion - Woden (Odin), etc.

Here's a clue:
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=string&x=17&y=12
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English streng; akin to Old High German strang rope, Latin stringere to bind tight
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=fellow&x=14&y=11
Etymology: Middle English felawe, from Old English fEolaga, from Old Norse fElagi, from fElag partnership, from fE cattle, money + lag act of laying

Saying the name dates back beyond Roman times is absurd. No English surname dates back that far.

Surnames developed from bynames, which are additional identifiers used to distinguish two people with the same given name. These bynames tend to fall into particular patterns. These usually started out as specific to a person and became inherited from father to son between the twelfth and sixteenth century. The aristocracy usually adopted inherited surnames early on and the peasants did so later. Some of the specific types are: the patronymic (referring to the father or mother), a locative or toponymic (indicating where a person is from), an epithet (which describes a person in some way) or a name derived from occupation, office or status. Most cultures use surnames developed from one or more of these types of bynames. P. H. Reaney's Origins of English Surnames covers the formations of these various types of bynames in much greater detail than is possible here.

http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/namehist.html