Northumbrian was a dialect spoken in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. It was one of four distinct dialects of Old English, the other three wereKentish, Mercian and West Saxon.

The dialect was spoken from the Humber in England to the Firth of Forth in Scotland. During the Viking invasions of the 9th century, Northumbrian came under the influence from the languages of the Viking invaders.

The Viking invasion would force the dialect to split in two. The southern Northumbrian dialect would be heavily influenced by Norse. The northern Northumbrian dialect would not only retain a lot of the Old English words (replaced in the south by Norse words), but would also later evolve into the northern English dialect "Geordie" and the Scots language of Scotland.