The Angles Saxons and English

The Mercians, the Northumbrians, the East Anglions, the Saxons, the Kintish all called their language English. It appears that the term English was in common use throughout the island long before the word England existed. At this early point there were separate independent kingdoms so the people didn't refer to a single unified political entity yet. But they did refer to themselves as the English and they referred to their language as English. In fact English was the only term used by the Angles Saxon writers from the very beginning to describe the language of the Germanic vaters,. including theSaxons and others.