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

In a message dated 06/27/2002 03.03.46 PM, trwier@UCHICAGO.EDU writes:

>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.
    IIRC, you are so right. AFAIK also the Ch'an Buddhists poets (i.e. the
hermit-poet HanShan of Cold Mountain) wrote in "coarse" vernacular rather
than the "more refined" Classical Chinese. And the Chinese Ch'an Buddhist
poetry influenced Japanese Zen Buddhist poetry...

    Talking of NatLang vernaculars... the emerging literatures of creole
languages (i.e. Bislama, Tok Pisin, Krio, etc.) are "vernaculars", eh?
    Is it possible in the not-too-distant future that a vernacular creole
becomes a "classical" language of a culture/nation?
    Can it be argued that Bahasa Indonesia is on that "path"?  0_o?

Hanuman Zhang
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