Vernacular Vernacular A vernacular, or vernacular language, is the language or variety of a language used in everyday life by the common people of a specific population. It is distinguished from a standard, national or literary language or a "lingua franca", used to facilitate communication across a large area. It is usually native, mostly spoken rather than written and usually seen as of lower status than more standardized forms. It can be a language, dialect or sociolect. Some linguists use "vernacular" and "nonstandard dialect" as synonyms. Usage of the word "vernacular" is not recent. In 1688, James Howell wrote: Concerning Italy,
Names given to the Spanish language language came from. For people who use that term, "castellano" may possibly imply greater correctness, as it sometimes does in Spain, or it may merely be an alien term, referring to a region in a far-off country. However, some Latin Americans prefer the term "castellano", especially in Argentina, Chile, and Peru. One reason for this is that many early Argentine settlers were Galician, for whom "castellano" had long been associated with the Spanish state in addition to Castile. Along with Basques or Catalans, Galicians might perceive the term "español" as imperialistic and misrepresenting the language of Castile as the language