WHAT ARE VERNACULAR LANGUAGES? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The vernaculars are the common language and the words we use to have a casual conversation with our co-workers, friends or family. This speech includes obscenities and slang words. The vernacular is also a specific language designed to help us communicate.

Lawyers and doctors have their own language, as do moviegoers. However, the use of the vernacular is everywhere; in schools, in college courses, at home, in offices, in law, in medicine, and in the media.

In fact, language is a starting point for any literary work. This type of speech in particular is one of the literary techniques that can reach a great connection with most people, creating a strong bond between them because it is closer to their daily conversation.

Additionally, dialogue and phrases often reinforce the setting of a narrative, adding depth by creating a sense of realism for readers. On the other hand, with the rise of humanist authors, the vernacular languages ​​of the Renaissance were gradually recovered and reflected in literature.

In this sense, in all cultures there has been a linguistic discrimination where only cultured expressions or specific languages ​​(as in Latin) were reflected, used in literature even when ordinary people did not speak it.

Brief history of the vernacular

Vernacular languages ​​are the result of the interaction of many cultures that influence the language. For example, from the Celtic languages, we incorporate the following words into our language: rock, doll, butter, blood sausage, pottage, bacon, beer and bat.

There are also Iberianisms such as: rabbit, calf, tick. From the Phoenician we adopt the following words: names like Elisa, Emmanuel and the words vaca and Cádiz. From Basque: Scrap, slate, avalanche.

In general terms, the Romans before the 3rd century BC, influenced and enriched our Spanish language when, in that century, they invaded Hispania, contributing vulgar Latin.

Soon after, the Visigoths began a slow process of linguistic fragmentation that resulted in the different Spanish dialects. Belatedly, the Arabs in 711 AD dominated the entire Iberian Peninsula (except the northern mountains) contributing approximately 4 thousand Arabicisms.

Some examples of words that we were adopting in our everyday language are: carpet, watchtower, oil, olive, basil, bricklayer, mayor, sewer, bedroom. And among others; alcohol, alfalfa, algebra (arithmetic), cotton, hopefully (Allah willing).

In the late Middle Ages, Antonio de Nebrija wrote the Castilian grammar, this being the first of a vulgar language. Juan de Valdés, in his Dialogue of the language (1535), expresses the importance of the philological heritage by saying:

During the Modern Age, with the conquest of America, Castilian began to be called Spanish and was enriched with indigenous words such as: cocuyo, colibrí, daiquiri, hammock, hurricane, henequen, iguana, Caribbean, tobacco, peanut.

As for Africans, the words are adopted in our vernacular language: Bomba, candungo, cocolo, Cocoroco, burundanga, abombarse, fufú, funche, chévere, dengue, anamú

And from the Anglo-Saxons we adopt words like parking, relax, drone, ok, gufear, among many others.

Vernacular literature

The vernacular is a literary genre that uses the language used daily in writing and speaking. It is different from written works in that they normally follow the formal variety of language. The word "vernacular" refers to public writing or speaking.

We find the origin of vernacular literature during the Middle Ages in different countries of Europe. In fact, Latin was the language of historical documents, religion, and ordinary people did not even speak it in medieval Europe any more than the Sanskrit language in India.

However, vernacular writers diverged from formal trends by writing in the language of ordinary people like Dante, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Mark Twain. Along these lines, Dante Alighieri was the first to use the vernacular in his famous epic poem, The Divine Comedy.

Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio among other humanists rescued ancient languages ​​to communicate their ideas, but at the same time they considered that vernacular languages ​​were an effective vehicle for transmitting knowledge and at the same time cultivating the sciences.

The poet Dante Alighieri wrote De vulgari eloquentia (On the vulgar language) in Latin in order to exalt everyday Italian speech, which he did not consider a static language, but rather, an evolving language that needed to be contextualized in history.

Vernacular versus dialect

In turn, the vernacular language is the use of ordinary, everyday and clear phrases in speaking or writing, while the dialect is related to a particular region, a geographical area, a particular social class or an occupational group.

In addition, it uses a distinguished pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, like the people of Shanghai who have a different pronunciation in their dialect than in Yunnan.

Slang versus vernacular language

The difference between slang and vernacular is that slang is a secret language used by various groups (including, but not limited to, thieves and other criminals) to prevent outsiders from understanding your conversations. On the other hand, the vernacular is the language of a people or a national language.

Slang

Slang is a terminology that is specially defined in relation to a specific activity, profession, group or event.

Vernacular languages ​​and education

It is very important to bear in mind that the language that is learned in childhood constitutes the main cultural trait of a person, it is also an inherited cultural trait that ends up being part of people's habits.

The native language is worth preserving and we must bear in mind that the language evolves from generation to generation, undergoing modifications in pronunciation and vocabulary to begin to be used by all members of a community and country.

To maintain the cultural features of our language, it is important that it be transmitted in schools, which must incorporate into their teaching system the languages ​​that are used in the day-to-day life of a society in a given region.

References

1. literarydevices.net. Definition of Vernacular. 1-28-2017, from LiteraryDevices Website. Extracted from: literarydevices.net.
2. stackexchange.com. (2013). Slang vs Jargon. 28-1-2017, from Linguistics beta Extracted from: linguistics.stackexchange.com.
3. Mata Induráin, C. (2012). Humanism and the defense of vernacular languages. 1-28-2017, from WordPress.com. Extracted from: nsulabaranaria.wordpress.com.
4. unesco.org. (1954). Use of vernacular languages ​​in teaching. 1-28-2017, from UNESCO Extracted from: unesdoc.unesco.org.