Episode 31: Saxons, Franks and Other West Germans
The History of English Podcast
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The Origins of the Saxon Word Gal
Anglo-Saxons called it a sheire, and the Normans called it a county. But neither used that original Saxon term gal, which was actually pronounced gah in Old English. Since the Anglo-Saxons preferred sheire, the term gah basically disappeared from Old English. Some linguists think that a person who lived in a village was a yaman, or later yomen.
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