West Saxon was one of four distinct
dialects of Old English. The three others were
Kentish,
Mercian and
Northumbrian (the latter two were similar and are known as the Anglian dialects). West Saxon was the language of the kingdom of
Wessex, and was the basis for successive widely used literary forms of Old English: the
Early West Saxon of
Alfred the Great's time, and the
Late West Saxon of the late 10th and 11th centuries.