Vernacular language is defined as the standard native language of a country or locality. Latin is a vernacular language that had an large impact on the medieval way of life. The Roman Empire spoke Latin and this language became a prominent part of the culture until the 1200 A.D. For years and years to come Latin language dominated the western world and were every the Roman Empire ruled this was the primary language that was used. When the Roman Empire began to fall the Latin language faded away and the countries began to use their vernacular language.

These languages would one day be known as Portuguese, French, Spanish, Italian, and etc. The vernacular languages would also be considered as the large family of contemporary “Romance” languages (Matthews, 2011). Before the twelfth century, Latin was the major language that was used by writers. The developments of Latin were influenced by other native languages which included Celtic languages, Greek, and Etruscan (University of Calgary, 1996). Latin was continuously developed because there were significant differences in each period. These differences included those in the literary written language, and also in the differences in the spoken language of the educated and the less educated populace. Between 500 – 100 after the Empire, the peninsula was also using the vernacular language in the form of popular celebrations of religious festivals, improvisational troupes of actors, story-tellers, etc (Matthews, 2011). However none of the literature was written down and handed down to the generations. However, although none of the literature was written down, there was enough from around the year 1200 to prove that the common language could be produced into real literature of the common people. There were also other vernacular languages being developed before the twelfth century