Vulgar Latin

Vulgar Latin (in Latin, sermo vulgaris, "common speech") is a blanket term covering the vernacular dialects and sociolects of the Latin language until those dialects, diverging still further, evolved into the early Romance languages — a distinction usually made around the ninth century. It includes late Latin; the terms are often used synonymously. However, Vulgar Latin can also refer to vernacular speech from other periods, including the Classical period.

This spoken Latin came to differ from Classical Latin in its pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. Some features of Vulgar Latin did not appear until the late Empire. Other features are likely to have occurred in spoken Latin, in at least its basilectal forms, much earlier.