what are anglo saxon?

Question

english are anglo saxon, are there more anglos out there?

Answer 1

A Germanic people inhabiting parts of England during Mediaeval times. 5th century til 1066.

Answer 2

As a fellow Texan, I will vouch for Shirley T's use of the word "Anglo", which locally includes anyone from a European background and excludes African-Americans and Hispanics. However, elsewhere, Anglo-Saxon usually means "English" rather than "British", a term which would also include the Welsh and the Scots.

The Angles and the Saxons were two Germanic tribes that settled in what is now England beginning in the 5th century CE. These peoples were, in turn, conquered by William the Conqueror and his fellow Normans in 1066. The West-Saxon dialect of Anglo-Saxon (the dialect of "Beowulf") turned into Middle English about the time of Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" and eventually developed into Modern English about the time of William Shakespeare.

The ancestors of the English colonists who landed at Plymouth Rock or founded Jamestown in what would become the United States were a blend of all the peoples that settled the southern half of the British Isles from the time that the Roman legions left them: the original Celtic inhabitants, the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, and finally the Normans. During the Reformation, many French Protestants also settled in England. Any naturalized or native-born individual who lives in contemporary England today is free to call him or herself "English" whatever his or her ethnicity.

Answer 3

I think Tham 153 gave you the best answer.


However, I lived in old San Antonio back in the 60s. They classified people as Anglos, Spanish and Black. A large portion of the non Spanish Caucasian people there are German and quite a few Czechs. I use to say Anglo was English. How could all these people be called Anglo? They stated it was because of the language they spoke. Well black people spoke English, also. One school district in Texas solved the problem by classifying children as either Anglo White or Anglo Black.

Anglo, specifically means English. However in the colonial days in the American South they had English, Scots, Scotch Irish, French Huguenots and people from one of the German states (called Dutch in colonial days). My maternal grandmother who was born in 1873 was a blend of all those people. I believe most of what are called the Anglo Saxon people of the South are pretty much a blend.

Answer 4

Angles were a Germanic tribe, generally of northern European extraction. Saxons were middle European. They invaded England after the Romans (Latins) fell from power. Angles and Saxons got control over most of the Britains and other Celtic tribes. They had tremendous problems with the Picts and Jutes (just as the Romans had). Ireland also gave them serious trouble; but the Norsemen (mostly Danish tribes) and later descendants (Normans) gave them the most problems.

It's better to think of the whole thing as a free-for-all shoot-em-out bar fight. Personally, anybody who posts good, authoritative links on this would get my 10 points.

Fascinating stuff.

Answer 5

Irish, scottish, places like that