Alemanni is an ancient Germanic alliance of tribes, which included Germanic tribes from the previously disintegrated unions of Svets and Marcomans, as well as the Yutungs who came from the north. Later became known as the Swabians, who gave the name of the historical area of Swabia in Germany. The Alemannian language became the basis for the High German dialects.
History
The first mention of the Alemanni dates back to the era of the Roman emperor Caracalla (reigned 211-217 AD). Among his titles, contemporaries cite the title of Alamanicus, that is, the “winner of alamannov.” In Roman sources, the name of this people is more often found in this form – Alemanni. Apparently, etymologically, the ethnonym goes back to the Germanic “alle mannen” – “all people” and reflects the fact that the tribal union of the Alemanni was formed from a number of Germanic tribes of different origin.
In Romance languages (such as French , Portuguese and Spanish ) the word “al (e) man” is preserved as the common name of the Germans. From there, it also passed into Eastern languages, for example, Persian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, and others.
Origin
The Alemanni was originally mentioned in 213 by the Roman historian Dion Cassius , when this tribe was located in the lower reaches of the Main (one of the largest tributaries of the Rhine). It is impossible to assert that this area was the original place of their residence, since the core of the Alemanni tribe was the earlier Semnon tribe that inhabited the Elbe River basin.
At the beginning of the first millennium, they inhabited the southern part of the Elbe Basin, in the III century the Alamanni broke through the border of the Roman Empire along the Rhine, the first of the Germans seized part of Roman territory and began to invade Gaul and Italy. At the end of the 5th century, the Franks were pushed aside to the territory of present-day southern Germany and western Austria.
The Alamanni participated in the campaigns on the Roman Empire (like most Germanic tribes).