Late West Saxon

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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 did not 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.