Literary notes about Vernacular (AI summary)
In literature, the term vernacular is employed to indicate the everyday language of ordinary people, offering writers a means to capture the authentic speech and local color of a setting. It often stands in stark contrast to academic or high literary language, as when a character abandons formal English in favor of the common tongue of the lower East Side [1] or when translations seek to render texts accessible by adhering to the natural speech of the people [2]. Moreover, discussions of vernacular extend beyond dialogue to encompass regional dialects and cultural identity, as seen in the use of North Lancashire speech in poetic forms [3] and even in academic debates about linguistic evolution and its uniformity relative to crafted literary language [4]. Such usage, evident in works by Kipling [5, 6] and Mark Twain [7], underscores the rich interplay between language, culture, and literary expression.
- Here his academic English completely forsook him and he continued in the vernacular of the lower East Side.
— from Abe and Mawruss: Being Further Adventures of Potash and Perlmutter by Montague Glass - Both the vernacular translators have rendered this verse wrongly.
— from The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 - His dialectic forms are taken from the vernacular of the North Lancashire folk with which he was familiar.
— from Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I by Edmund Spenser - No other language, not even French or German, has a vernacular so uniform and well established, and with so few variations from the literary language.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - 'I am here,' said Kim at last, speaking in the vernacular: the smells made him forget that he was to be a Sahib.
— from Kim by Rudyard Kipling - 'Listen to me,' said the Colonel from the veranda, speaking in the vernacular.
— from Kim by Rudyard Kipling - It is the landmark in my memory which tells me where I first encountered the vigorous new vernacular of the occidental plains and mountains.
— from Roughing It by Mark Twain