Everything about Late West Saxon totally explained
Late West Saxon was a form of
West Saxon, primarily spoken in
Wessex, which was one of four distinct dialects of
Old English. The three others were
Kentish,
Mercian and
Northumbrian (the latter two known as the
Anglian dialects).
There were two stages of the West Saxon
dialect:
Early West Saxon (c.
9th century) and Late West Saxon (c.
10th century). After
900, West Saxon became widely used as a standard written language, and is sometimes referred to as
Classic West-Saxon.
Late West Saxon was the dialect that became the first "standardised" written English (
Winchester standard). This dialect was spoken mostly in the south and west of England around the important
monastery at
Winchester, which was also the 'capital city' of the English kings. However, while other Old English dialects were still spoken in other parts of the country, it seems that all scribes wrote and copied manuscripts in this prestigious written form. Well-known
poems recorded in this language include
Beowulf and
Judith. However, both these poems appear to have been written originally in other Old English dialects, but they were later "translated" into the standard Late West Saxon literary language when they were copied by scribes.
The "Winchester standard" gradually fell out of use after the
Norman Conquest. Monasteries didn't keep the standard going because English
bishops were soon replaced by
Norman bishops who brought their own
Latin textbooks and scribal conventions, and there was less and less need to copy or write in Old English. Latin soon became the "language for all serious writing", with
Anglo-Norman as the language of the aristocracy, and any standard written English became a distant memory by the mid-
12th century.
Late West Saxon is the distant ancestor of the
West Country dialects.
Further Information
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