Editing Vernacular (section)

====In contrast with lingua franca====
[[File:Dante 3 Luca.jpg|thumb|left|Allegory of [[Dante Alighieri]], champion of the use of vernacular Italian for literature rather than the lingua franca, Latin. Fresco by [[Luca Signorelli]] in the cappella di San Brizio dome, Orvieto]]
[[File:Incunabula distribution by language.png|thumb|Ratio of books printed in Europe in the vernacular languages to those in Latin in the 15th century<ref name="ISTC">{{cite web |url=http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/index.html |title=Incunabula Short Title Catalogue |publisher=[[British Library]] |access-date=2 March 2011}}</ref>]]
In [[Linguistics|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 communicate.<ref>{{cite book |title=An introduction to sociolinguistics |url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontoso00ward |url-access=registration |first=Ronald |last=Wardhaugh |location=Malden, Mass.; Oxford |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]] |year=2006 |page=[https://archive.org/details/introductiontoso00ward/page/59 59] |isbn=9781405135597 |quote=In 1953, UNESCO defined a lingua franca as 'a language which is used habitually by people whose mother tongues are different in order to facilitate communication between them.'}}</ref> For instance, in [[Western Europe]] until the 17th century, most scholarly works had been written in [[Latin]], which was serving as a lingua franca. Works written in [[Romance language]]s are said to be in the vernacular. The ''[[Divine Comedy|Divina Commedia]]'', the {{Lang|osp|[[Cantar de Mio Cid]]}}, and [[The Song of Roland]] are examples of early vernacular literature in Italian, Spanish, and French, respectively.

In Europe, Latin was used widely instead of vernacular languages in varying forms until {{Circa|1701}}, in its latter stage as [[Neo-Latin]].

In religion, [[Protestantism]] was a driving force in the use of the vernacular in Christian Europe, the [[Bible]] having been translated from Latin into vernacular languages with such works as the Bible in Dutch: published in 1526 by [[Jacob van Liesvelt]]; Bible in French: published in 1528 by Jacques Lefevre d'Étaples (or Faber Stapulensis); German [[Luther Bible]] in 1534 ([[New Testament]] 1522); Bible in Spanish: published in Basel in 1569 by Casiodoro de Reina (Biblia del Oso); Bible in Czech: Bible of Kralice, printed between 1579 and 1593; Bible in English: [[King James Bible]], published in 1611; Bible in Slovene, published in 1584 by Jurij Dalmatin. In [[Catholicism]], vernacular bibles were later provided, but Latin was used at [[Tridentine Mass]] until the [[Second Vatican Council]] of 1965. Certain groups, notably [[Traditionalist Catholic]]s, continue to practice [[Liturgical use of Latin|Latin Mass]]. In [[Eastern Orthodox Church]], four [[Gospels]] translated to vernacular Ukrainian language in 1561 are known as [[Peresopnytsia Gospel]].

In India, the 12th century [[Bhakti movement]] led to the translation of Sanskrit texts to the vernacular.

In science, an early user of the vernacular was [[Galileo]], writing in Italian {{Circa|1600}}, though some of his works remained in Latin. A later example is [[Isaac Newton]], whose 1687 ''[[Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica|Principia]]'' was in Latin, but whose 1704 ''[[Opticks]]'' was in English. Latin continues to be used in certain fields of science, notably [[binomial nomenclature]] in biology, while other fields such as mathematics use vernacular; see [[scientific nomenclature]] for details.

In diplomacy, French displaced Latin in Europe in the 1710s, due to the military power of [[Louis XIV of France]].

Certain languages have both a classical form and various vernacular forms, with two widely used examples being Arabic and Chinese: see [[Varieties of Arabic]] and [[Chinese language]]. In the 1920s, due to the [[May Fourth Movement]], [[Classical Chinese]] was replaced by [[written vernacular Chinese]].

{{further|Vernacular literature}}