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Glite Dictionary
🧑‍🌾 A person from Wessex 📜 Old English dialect
West Saxon

West Saxon

9.9
An old form of English used in speech and writing in southwest England before the Norman Conquest
  • noun
  • Archaic
translation icon : sajón occidental
  • Many important Old English texts were written in the West Saxon dialect.

Examples

  • Many texts were written in West Saxon during the early medieval period.

  • The influence of West Saxon can still be traced in some modern English words.

  • Linguists study West Saxon to understand the development of modern English.

  • The West Saxon dialect influenced many aspects of modern English.

  • Linguists study West Saxon to understand the development of modern English.

  • Many important Old English texts were written in the West Saxon dialect.

  • The influence of West Saxon can still be traced in some modern English words.

Surface Forms

West Saxon singular
West Saxons plural

Morphology

West + Saxon

The compound combines 'West' (a direction/region) and 'Saxon' (a member of the Saxons), so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a Saxon from the western area (i.e. someone from Wessex). Although it refers to a specific historical group, the region+people naming pattern is directly compositional and common cross-linguistically, making the meaning accessible to B1 learners.

Etymology

West Saxon comes from the words West and Saxon: it named the Saxon people who lived in the western kingdom of Wessex. Monks and writers there used this speech for many books, so it became the main written form of Old English, and today the term means that historical dialect.