 the west country dialects and west country accents are the english dialects and accents used by much of the indigenous population of south west england, the area popularly known as the west country.the southwest of england (varieties of english around the world t5) the west country is often defined as encompassing the counties of cornwall, devon, dorset, somerset and wiltshire, and the city of bristol; gloucestershire and even herefordshire and worcestershire are sometimes also included. however, the northern and eastern boundaries of the area are hard to define. in adjacent counties of berkshire, hampshire, the isle of wight and oxfordshire it is possible to encounter similar accents and, indeed, much the same distinct dialect, though with some similarities to others in neighboring regions&nbsp;â a dialect speaker from the isle of wight for instance could hold an understandable conversation with a dialect speaker from devon without too many problems. although natives of such locations, especially in rural parts, can still have west country influences in their speech, the increased mobility and urbanisation of the population have meant that local berkshire, hampshire and isle of wight and oxfordshire the dialect (as opposed to accents) is becoming increasingly rare. academically the regional variations are considered to be dialectal forms. the survey of english dialects captured manners of speech across the south west region that were just as different from standard english as anything from the far north of england. there is some influence from the welsh and cornish languages, depending on the specific location. ==in literature== in literary terms, most of the usage has been in either poetry or dialogue, to add "local colour". it has rarely been used for serious prose in recent times, but was used much more extensively up to the 19th century. west country dialects are commonly represented as "mummerset", a kind of catchall southern rural accent invented for broadcasting. ===early period=== * the late west saxon dialect was the standard literary language of later anglo-saxon england, and consequently the majority of anglo-saxon literature, including the epic poem beowulf and the poetic biblical paraphrase judith, is preserved in west saxon dialect, though not all of it was originally written in west saxon. * in the medieval period sumer is icumen in (13th century) is a notable example of a work in the dialect. * the [[cornish lan
English_language_in_England Languages_of_the_United_Kingdom West_Country