Vulgarlatein

Vulgarlatein, or Vulgar Latin, refers to the nonstandard, vernacular varieties of Latin that circulated across the Roman world from the late Republic into the early Middle Ages. It is distinct from Classical Latin, the polished literary form used by authors such as Cicero and Virgil. Vulgar Latin covered everyday speech in homes, markets, towns, and camps, and it varied by region, social group, and interaction with other languages.

Origins and development: Vulgar Latin developed from ordinary everyday speech and gradually diverged from Classical Latin through regional variation and internal simplification. Over time, phonological shifts and the erosion of the Latin inflectional system reduced reliance on case endings and complex word forms. Grammatical constructions became more analytic, pronoun use shifted, and articles and other new patterns began to appear. By the medieval period, these changes had produced distinct Romance language varieties rather than a single continuous Latin standard.

Geographic distribution and legacy: The various regional Vulgar Latin dialects gave rise to the Romance languages, including Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Romanian, and Catalan, among others. In the eastern basin, Latin interacted with Greek and local languages, influencing regional development. The evolution from Vulgar Latin to the Romance languages is a central pillar of historical linguistics, illustrating how spoken language can diverge from a literary standard over centuries.

Evidence and scholarship: Because Vulgar Latin left few direct, standardized texts, scholars reconstruct it from late Latin documents, inscriptions, glosses, and the evolving features visible in early Romance languages. The term is primarily a scholarly label for a continuum of spoken varieties, not a single canonical form.