Vulgärlatein

Vulgärlatein, often translated as Vulgar Latin, refers to the spoken language of ancient Rome, as opposed to Classical Latin, which was the formal literary language. It was the everyday speech of soldiers, merchants, and common people, and it varied geographically and socially. This spoken Latin was not a single monolithic entity but rather a collection of dialects.

Over time, as the Roman Empire expanded and eventually fragmented, these regional variations of Vulgärlatein began to diverge significantly. The linguistic differences became more pronounced, leading to the gradual development of distinct Romance languages. Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Romanian, and Catalan all trace their origins back to different forms of Vulgärlatein.

The exact nature of Vulgärlatein is difficult to reconstruct definitively, as it was primarily an oral language with few written records dedicated to its study. However, scholars infer its characteristics from various sources, including the writings of Roman grammarians who complained about "incorrect" usage, inscriptions, personal letters, and the surviving vocabulary and grammar of the early Romance languages. Key differences from Classical Latin included changes in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar (such as the loss of the neuter gender and simplification of noun declensions), and syntax. The study of Vulgärlatein is crucial for understanding the evolution of language and the historical development of Western Europe.