First usage of the word "vernacular" is not recent. In 1688, James Howell wrote:
Concerning Italy, doubtless there were divers before the Latin did spread all over that Country; the Calabrian, and Apulian spoke Greek, whereof

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General linguistics
In contrast with lingua franca
In general linguistics, a vernacular is contrasted with a lingua franca, a third-party language in which persons speaking different vernaculars not understood by each other may

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Vernaculars acquired the status of official languages through metalinguistic publications. Between 1437 and 1586, the first grammar of Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, German and Englishwere written, though not always immediately published. It is to be understood that

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A dictionary is to be distinguished from a glossary. Although numerous glossaries publishing vernacular words had long been in existence, such as the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville,

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• Colloquial language
• Dialect
• First language
• Folklore
• Glossary
• Literary language

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• Illich. "Vernacular Values". The Preservation Institute. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
• Vernacular (disambiguation)

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The term "vernacular" may also be applied metaphorically to any cultural product of the lower, common orders of society that is relatively uninfluenced by the ideas and ideals of the educated élite. Hence, vernacular has had connotations of a coarseness and

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