Vernacular

A vernacular is the dialect or variety of language that is spoken by the common people of a particular place. Vernaculars are distinguished from official bureaucratic or religious languages, trade languages and any lingua franca or language of the elites that is also spoken in the same region. For example, Latin was the official language of the Church and state in medieval Europe, but most people did not understand Latin and those who did learned it as a second language. It was not until the sixteenth century that many writers began to use their own languages, their vernaculars, instead of Latin.