VULGARIA Meaning and
Definition
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Vulgaria, also known as Vulgar Latin, refers to the colloquial form of the Latin language that developed from Classical Latin during the later years of the Roman Republic and the early years of the Roman Empire. Vulgaria mainly encompasses the spoken vernacular of the common people, as opposed to the more formal and literary Classical Latin used by the educated elite.
As the Roman Empire expanded its territories, Vulgar Latin emerged as a result of linguistic evolution and interaction with the various regional languages and dialects across the empire. This linguistic development gave rise to numerous localized variations of Vulgar Latin, ultimately leading to the formation of various Romance languages, including Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian, among others.
Vulgaria, therefore, refers to the precursor of these modern Romance languages and represents a critical part of the linguistic history of the western world. It reveals the transformation of Latin as it adapted to the diverse linguistic and cultural contexts of the Roman Empire and the subsequent evolution of these regional variations into distinct Romance languages. Studying Vulgaria provides insight into the linguistic changes that occurred during this period and sheds light on the social, cultural, and historical context of the Roman Empire and its influence on what would become the foundation of numerous modern languages.
Etymology of VULGARIA
The word "vulgaria" has its roots in Latin. It stems from the Latin word "vulgus", which means "common people" or "the multitude". The suffix "-aria" is a noun-forming suffix that typically denotes a collection or a place associated with the root word. Hence, "vulgaria" can be understood as meaning "the words or expressions of the common people" or "a collection of common phrases or sayings". Over time, this term came to be used to refer to collections of common and widely used expressions, which served as resources for speakers and writers.
