"Vulgar Latin" is a blanket term covering the vernacular dialects of the Latin language spoken mostly in the western provinces of the Roman Empire, starting from the second and third century CE, until its direct merging with the early Romance languages in the ninth century. This spoken Latin differed from the literary language of 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 been in place in spoken Latin, in at least its basilectal forms, much earlier. Our knowledge of Vulgar Latin comes from three chief sources. First, the comparative method can reconstruct the underlying forms from the attested Romance languages, and note where they differ from classical Latin. Second, various prescriptive grammar texts from the late Latin period condemn linguistic errors that Latin users were likely to commit, providing insight into how Latin speakers used their language. Finally, the solecisms and non-Classical usages that occasionally are found in late Latin texts also shed light on the spoken language of the writer.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulgar_Latin

Today's selected anniversaries:

1810 The first Oktoberfest was held in Munich. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest)

1960 Nikita Khrushchev became enraged at a United Nations conference and told the Filipino delegate that he was "a jerk, a stooge and a lackey of imperialism." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_Khrushchev)

1999 A military coup in Pakistan led by General Pervez Musharraf ousted the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pervez_Musharraf)

2002 A terrorist bombing on the Indonesian island of Bali killed 202 people. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Bali_terrorist_bombing)

Wikiquote of the day:

"I don't really know why I care so much. I just have something inside me that tells me that there is a problem, and I have got to do something about it. I think that is what I would call the God in me. All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that unites all life, everything that is on this planet." ~ Wangari Maathai (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wangari_Maathai)