Re: CHAT: oldest known records of vernacular languages [was Re:

Quoting John Cowan <jcowan@...>:

> Thomas R. Wier scripsit:
>
> > Perhaps I have not been clear.  My purpose in using the word
> > "vernacular" was in contradistinction to "classical", i.e.,
> > learned languages after the fall of Rome.  Of course Greek
> > constitutes a much older tradition, since Ancient Greek
> > orthography still influences modern Greek Dimotiki, and of
> > course, Chinese beats even that.  But this wasn't my question.
>
> Well, fair enough for Chinese, but I think that Greek writing can
> soundly be called vernacular in Greece (including the Byzantine Empire),
> though it was "classical" elsewhere.
I'm not sure it's fair to describe the Greek that shows up
in post-classical Greek texts vernacular in the normal sense
of the word.  Procopius, among others, used an archaizing
form of the language that would today be considered diglossia.

> Vernacular Chinese writing (bai2hua4) probably starts around the 13th
> century, IIRC, although it didn't really take off until the beginning
> of the 20th.
I seem to remember that some Tang dynasty poets wrote in the
vernacular, but I might be confusing that. Certainly plays
in the Yuan dynasty were often written in the vernacular.

=====================================================================
Thomas Wier          "...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics  mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
1010 E. 59th Street   and not complete one road that has no turn"
Chicago, IL 60637     Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers

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