in volgare = in the vernacular
Garzanti Hazon

http://dizionari.corriere.it/dizionario_inglese/Italiano/V/v...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 14 mins (2008-09-18 09:21:17 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Vulgar Latin (in Latin, sermo vulgaris, "folk speech") is a blanket term covering the popular dialects and sociolects of the Latin language which diverged from each other in the early Middle Ages, evolving into the Romance languages by the 9th century.

Vulgar Latin developed differently in the various provinces of the Roman Empire, gradually giving rise to such languages as French, Catalan, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and several dozen other languages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulgar_Latin

You could refer to 14th century Italian as "vulgar" (I would use quotes!) in reference to Dante's "De vulgari eloquentia" which is usually translated in English as a "Treatise on the Vulgar Tongue".
It has nothing to do with the modern conotation of vulgar, but comes from vulgus meaning the people, the rabble, the multitude.

Your choice of term depends on the register of the translation - I would think that verncular would be a better choice for a lower register, "vulgar" for a higher one. At the time, vernacular was used to describe the opposite of Latin, i.e. the vulgaris.

"....humanists did write some works in the volgare, but the largest part of their output was in Latin."
from http://www.idehist.uu.se/distans/ilmh/Ren/ren-pet-mclaughlin...

"...The language of Dante: from the discovery of the "volgare" as a literary language to the many styles of Comedy: the Vita Nuova , the first book of the Convivio and the De vulgari eloquentia"
from http://www.unive.it/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=34622&istanza=4080002...

I would leave it untranslated. It is not a "vernacular" it indicates a specific language, which was "purified" by Dante in his works.

Have a nice day,

Milena




--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2008-09-18 12:56:33 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

The "volgare illustre" was the first attempt to standardise the italian language, attempt that was not very succesful at the time. Dante's "Divina Commedia" was actually mistreated by popular story tellers who made "translations" of the text in the spoken "volgare".
In any case I would leave it untranslated, because I think that it indicates a specific language between Latin and Italian.

Have a nice day,

Milena

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 4 hrs (2008-09-18 13:20:34 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I read "illustre" in Dante's works. He called the "volgare" he used himself "illustre" because it was a "skimmed" language if compared to the "volgare" spoken by people at the time.
We often refer to the "literary" volgare (Dante, Petrarca etc.) not making the difference between the written language and the spoken language at the time.


Again, have a nice day,
Milena

As your question refers to 'la forma primordiale del'italiano' - therefore the origins of the language, 'Vulgar latin' would be the correct term - 'vernacular' is a more general term (see last part of wikipedia entry below) However, as 'Vulgar Latin' is also a bit of a blanket term and some scholars prefer to avoid its use altogether for that very reason (see google book link) perhaps you could compromise by using ther term "Late Vulgar Latin' which is more specific??

'vulgar Latin', as the following wikipedia entry states, refers specifically to the language current between 200-900 (a point Amy makes):

"Vulgar Latin (in Latin, sermo vulgaris, "folk speech") is a blanket term covering the popular dialects and sociolects of the Latin language which diverged from each other in the early Middle Ages, evolving into the Romance languages by the 9th century. The terms Vulgar Latin and Late Latin are often used synonymously. Vulgar Latin can also refer to vernacular speech from other periods, including the Classical period, in which case it may also be called Popular Latin"

Vulgar Latin 200 – 900 (source wikipedia)

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Latin-2145/2008/6/Italian-Vulgar-...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 23 hrs (2008-09-19 08:26:20 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Sorry, piece of second citation missing: the full sentence reads: "Over time Italian became gradually distinguished from Latin, as the language of the lower classes as distinguished from the upper classes, but even as late as the end of the first millennium, it is hard to tell whether a text is late vulgar Latin or early Italian, as we now call it. By Dante circa 1300 one can see a definite difference.