Anglian is a cover term used to refer to two dialects of Old English, namely the Northumbrian and Mercian dialects. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ... Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ... Section from Shepherds map of the British Isles about 802 AD showing the kingdom of Northumbria Northumbria is primarily the name of an Anglian kingdom which was formed in Great Britain at the beginning of the 7th century, and of the much smaller earldom which succeeded the kingdom. ... Mercia, sometimes spelled Mierce, was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy, in what is now England, in the region of the Midlands, with its heart in the valley of the River Trent and its tributary streams. ...

Anglian language is also often used as a cover term for any of the Anglic languages, i.e. Old English and its descendants (Middle English, Modern English, Scots, etc.) The Anglic languages (also called Anglian languages) are one of the two branches of Anglo-Frisian languages, itself a branch of West Germanic. ... Middle English is the name given to an early form of the English language that was in common use from roughly the 12th to the 15th centuries— from after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror in 1066 to around the introduction of the printing press by William Caxton in... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Scots (or Lallans, meaning Lowlands), often Lowland Scots to distinguish it from the Gaelic of the Highlands, is a language used in Scotland, as well as parts of Northern Ireland and border areas of the Republic of Ireland, where it is known in official circles as Ulster Scots or Ullans...