por What are vernacular languages?
The vernacular languages They are all those languages of a country. They are said to be vernacular when contrasted with a lingua franca, such as Latin in the Middle Ages. Latin was used as a form of communication between all regions, in official and academic documents, as well as in literature.
However, in each region it was spoken in a different way. Daily communication took place in the vernacular, that is, in the language of that country. Little by little, this language was imposed until it evolved into the different languages we know today.
On the other hand, the expression is used vernacular to allude, always in linguistic terms, to local or regional words, instead of using «vulgar», due to the derogatory connotations of this adjective. Etymologically, the word comes from the Latin vernacular, which literally means «born in one’s house», and this, in turn, derives from see, “slave born in the master’s house”.
Today, for example, in the Spanish-speaking community and Spanish-language web users, the vernacular language of Wikipedia for this community is Spanish or Castilian, because it is the language of each of the countries where that language is spoken. .
Brief history of vernacular languages
Vernacular languages are the result of the interaction of many cultures that influence the language. For example, Spanish is the product of other languages, of inhabitants who originally populated what is known today as the Iberian Peninsula. Words such as rock, doll, butter, black pudding, stew, bacon, beer, and bat came from Celtic languages.
There are also Iberisms, such as rabbit, calf, tick. Names such as Elisa, Emmanuel and the words vaca and Cádiz derived from the Phoenician. From Basque, scrap, blackboard, avalanche, kiosk or coven.
The Romans, when they invaded what they called Hispania, imposed the imperial language, which was Latin. And not only in Hispania, but in all the places they conquered. Thus, Latin became the lingua franca of the Roman Empire, the language with which a Greek, a Hispanic, a Gaul or an Egyptian could communicate.
Specifically in Castilian, the language gradually shaped itself, through the various Germanic invasions and other parts. The Visigoths arrived, and with them began a slow process of linguistic fragmentation that resulted in the different Spanish languages. Then the Arabs invaded, in 711, and dominated the entire Iberian Peninsula (except the northern mountains) for 800 years, in which they contributed approximately 4,000 Arabisms.
In general terms, all the words in Spanish that start with -to thehave Arabic origin: carpet, basil, mason, mayor, sewer, bedroom, alcohol, alfalfa, algebra (arithmetic), cotton, pillow. But also others, such as hopefully (God willing), watchtower, oil, olive, stewardess, and a long etcetera.
In 1492, the same year that Columbus began his journey to other lands, Antonio de Nebrija elaborated and published the Castilian grammar, whose great merit was being the first of a vernacular language. Juan de Valdes, in his language dialogue (1535), expresses the importance of the philological heritage by saying:
«All men are more obliged to illustrate and enrich the language that is natural to us and that we suck on our mothers’ tits, than the one that is catchy and that we learn in books.»
With the conquest of America, Castilian began to be called Spanish, becoming the language of the Empire. At the same time, it was enriched with indigenous words, such as cocuyo, hummingbird, daiquiri, hammock, hurricane, henequen, iguana, caribbean, tobacco, peanut.
And from the African slaves, Spanish adopted the words bomba, candungo, cocolo, cocoroco, burundanga, abombarse, fufú, funche, chévere, dengue, anamú.
vernacular literature
The origin of vernacular literature is located in the Middle Ages, in different countries of Europe. As already mentioned, Latin was the language of official and religious documents, common people did not speak it correctly, but what is known as Vulgar Latin, that is, Latin with regionalisms and mispronounced, quite far from Latin. written.
However, some writers began to write in the vernacular, thus legitimizing the various newborn languages, such as Dante, Geoffrey Chaucer or Boccaccio. Dante Alighieri, for example, was the first to use the vernacular in his famous epic poem, Divine Comedy. Chaucer was the author of the canterbury tales and Boccaccio wrote the Decameron. They wrote with the intention of reaching a wider audience.
Dante also wrote in Latin De vulgari eloquentia (About the vulgar language) in order to exalt everyday Italian speech, which he did not consider static, but on the contrary, he saw as a language that evolved and needed to be contextualized in history.
Vernacular versus dialect
While vernacular is the use of ordinary, everyday, clear locutions in speech or writing, dialect is related to a particular region, geographic area, particular social class, or occupational group.
The dialect, then, is the particular way in which the same language is spoken: the Castilian, Mexican, Cuban, Venezuelan, Argentine dialect. But also within the same country, specifying the areas. In Spain, for example, there would be the Andalusian dialect, the Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands, in Catalonia, in Aragon, etc. In Mexico, the one spoken in the south of the country, or in the north. And so everywhere.
Slang versus vernacular language
Slang is a linguistic modality that is spoken by a certain social or professional group, and that only its speakers know.
jargon
Slang is a linguistic variety 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 learned in childhood constitutes the main cultural trait of a person, as well as being an inheritance 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, in accordance with the uses and customs of the new generations.
References
Definition of Vernacular. Retrieved from literarydevices.net.
Slang vs Jargon. Retrieved from linguistics.stackexchange.com.
Mata Induráin, C. Humanism and the defense of vernacular languages. Recovered from nsulabaranaria.wordpress.com.
Use of vernacular languages in teaching. Retrieved from unesdoc.unesco.org.