West Saxon dialect facts for kids

West Saxon was a special way of speaking and writing Old English. Think of it like different accents or versions of a language. Old English had four main versions, called dialects: West Saxon, Kentish, Mercian, and Northumbrian. West Saxon was spoken in the kingdom of Wessex, which was a powerful area in England long ago.

Because Wessex was so strong, the West Saxon way of writing became very important. It had two main forms: Early West Saxon (from the time of Alfred the Great) and Late West Saxon (from the late 900s and 1000s). Many important Old English books and writings were made using these West Saxon styles.

Early West Saxon: King Alfred's Time

Early West Saxon was the language used by King Alfred (who lived from 849 to 899). King Alfred was a very important ruler who loved learning. He encouraged many books to be translated into Old English, and he even translated some himself! Because of him, this version of West Saxon is sometimes called "Alfredian Old English."

Some famous writings from this time include:

• King Alfred's introduction to a book called Pastoral Care.
• An Old English translation of a history book by Orosius.
• The Parker Chronicle, which was part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (a history of England).

Late West Saxon: A Standard Language

Over time, the language changed, and by the year 1066 (when the Norman conquest of England happened), it had become Late West Saxon. This version became the main written form of Old English. It was like the "standard" way to write, especially around Winchester, which was an important city and the capital of the Saxon kings.

Even if people spoke other Old English dialects in different parts of the country, many writers (called scribes) would copy books using this important Late West Saxon style. This is why it's sometimes called "classical" Old English.

Two very famous poems written in Old English, Beowulf and Judith, were copied in Late West Saxon. Even though they might have been first written in other dialects, scribes changed them to the standard Late West Saxon when they copied them.

A good example of Late West Saxon is found in the Wessex Gospels from around the year 990. Here is how the Lord's Prayer (from Matthew 6) looked in Late West Saxon:

Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum,

si þin nama gehalgod.

To becume þin rice,

gewurþe ðin willa,

on eorðan swa swa on heofonum.

Urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg,

and forgyf us ure gyltas,

swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum.

And ne gelæd þu us on costnunge,

ac alys us of yfele.

Soþlice.

One important text from this period is:

• Ælfric of Eynsham's Lives of the Saints.

What Happened Next?

After the Norman Conquest in 1066, things changed a lot for the West Saxon language. The new rulers, the Normans, spoke Anglo-Norman (a type of French) and used Latin for important documents and learning.

Because of this, there was less need to write in Old English. The "Winchester standard" of West Saxon slowly faded away. By the mid-1100s, any standard way of writing English was mostly forgotten.

The English language continued to change, and the new standard ways of speaking and writing in Middle English and Modern English came from a different dialect, the East Midlands dialect. However, some parts of the West Country dialects spoken today are distantly related to Late West Saxon.

See also

• Wiktionary's coverage of West Saxon terms
• Wiktionary's coverage of Early West Saxon terms
• Wiktionary's coverage of Late West Saxon terms