Part of a series on |
Old English |
---|
Dialects
|
Use
|
Literature
|
History
|
Legacy
|
|
Beowulf predominantly uses the West Saxon dialect of Old English, like other Old English poems copied at the time. However, it also uses many other linguistic forms; this leads some scholars to believe that it has endured a long and complicated transmission through all the main dialect areas. It retains a complicated mix of Mercian, Northumbrian, Early West Saxon, Anglian, Kentish and Late West Saxon dialectical forms.[145][64][146]