Vernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular - the speech of the common people. Open Directory Project: Literature World Literature Electronic Text Archives Magazines and E-zines Online Writing Writers Resources Libraries, Digital Cataloguing, Metadata Distance Learning Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Classicism in Literature The Universal Library, by Carnegie Mellon University Project Gutenberg Online Library Abacci - Project Gutenberg texts matched with Amazon... sheshoKKKK Categories: Sociolinguistics | Language varieties and styles ...

In the European tradition, this effectively means literature not written in Latin. In this context, vernacular literature appeared during the Middle Ages and it is widely accepted that the earliest European vernacular literature was written in Irish. Vernacular literature started to be widely used by the Humanists during the Renaissance. World map showing location of Europe When considered a continent, Europe is the worlds second smallest continent in terms of area, with an area of 10,600,000 km² (4,140,625 square miles), making it larger than Australia only. ... Latin is the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... By Region: Italian Renaissance Northern Renaissance *French Renaissance *German Renaissance *English Renaissance The Renaissance, also known as Rinascimento (in Italian), was an influential cultural movement which brought about a period of scientific revolution and artistic transformation, at the dawn of modern European history. ...

The Italian poet Dante Alighieri, in his De vulgari eloquentia, was possibly the first European writer to argue cogently for the promotion of literature in the vernacular. Important early vernacular works include Dante's Divine Comedy, Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron (both written in Italian) and Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (written in English). // Life Early history and family Dante was born in 1265 and he tells us he was born under the sign of Gemini, placing his birthday in June. ... De vulgari eloquentia is the title of an important essay by Dante Alighieri, written in Latin and initially meant to consist in four books, but aborted after the second. ... Dante shown holding a copy of The Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, in Michelinos fresco. ... Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (June 16, 1313 – December 21, 1375) was a Italian author and poet, the greatest of Petrarchs disciples, an important Renaissance humanist in his own right and author of a number of notable works including On Famous Women, the Decameron and his poems in the vernacular. ... The Decameron is a collection of novellas that was finished by Giovanni Boccaccio in 1353. ... Chaucer: Illustration from Cassells History of England, circa 1902 Geoffrey Chaucer (c. ... Canterbury Tales Woodcut 1484 The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century (two of them in prose, the rest in verse). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

By extension, the term is also used to describe, for example, Chinese literature not written in classical Chinese and Indian literature after Sanskrit. // Ancient texts The Four Books (四书, Sì shÅ«) are The Great Learning, (大学, Dà Xué). The Doctrine of the Golden Mean (中庸, Zhōng Yóng). ... The Sanskrit language ( संस्कृता वाक्) is one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family and is not only a classical language, but also an official language of India. ...

It is also used to edit comsposite literature.