View Message

In many parts of Europe of course, it didn't. Even as increasing volumes were written in the vernacular German or Romance dialects, forms of Latin very different from the Classical Latin of Ovid and Pliny continued (and sometimes continue) to be used by certain professional classes to prevent people from avoiding their economically non-productive services. This often included official legal documents - birth records, deeds, charters etc.. But at the same time as Latin became a professional jargon, economic and social forces encouraged a switch from Latin to the vernacular for other communications — a collection of bawdy tales may have a wider market if written in the vernacular rather than Latin for example, and not require the tedious translation from the vernacular to literary Latin.