vernacular

/vəˈnækjələ//vɚˈnækjəlɚ/

noun

  1. 1

    The language of a people or a national language.

    A vernacular of the United States is English.
  2. 2

    Everyday speech or dialect, including colloquialisms, as opposed to standard, literary, liturgical, or scientific idiom.

    Street vernacular can be quite different from what is heard elsewhere.
  3. 3

    Language unique to a particular group of people; jargon, argot.

    For those of a certain age, hiphop vernacular might just as well be a foreign language.
  4. 4

    A language lacking standardization or a written form.

  5. 5

    Indigenous spoken language, as distinct from a literary or liturgical language such as Ecclesiastical Latin.

    Vatican II allowed the celebration of the mass in the vernacular.

adjective

  1. 1

    Of or pertaining to everyday language, as opposed to standard, literary, liturgical, or scientific idiom.

  2. 2

    Belonging to the country of one's birth; one's own by birth or nature; native; indigenous.

    a vernacular disease
  3. 3

    Of or related to local building materials and styles; not imported.

  4. 4

    Connected to a collective memory; not imported.

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