What is the “vernacular”?

The story behind the answer

It refers to the common tongue people used in homes and marketplaces, rather than Latin or a prestige written norm used by clergy and scholars. That distinguishes it from specialist jargon, from an official standardized register, and from architecture.

In the Middle Ages, choosing the vernacular was revolutionary: Dante wrote the Divine Comedy in Tuscan, Chaucer composed The Canterbury Tales in Middle English, and troubadours sang in Occitan. This shift broadened audiences, fueled literacy, and helped crystallize regional identities. With the later printing press, these everyday tongues gained status, eventually forming the bases of modern national languages.