Topics in Cultural Studies - Assignment Example

Particularly around the 1200 A.D the Roman Empire started to decline and faced major setbacks, this was the time when Latin started to lose its initial charm. Initially those nations that dwelled far away were the ones with started to bring the changes and then later the ethical/ moral changes began. At this point many people started to select and filter in order to use their vernacular language again instead of using Latin. Although Latin has died but it is still in use by the educated belonging to elite classes, by law and diplomacy and also for university teaching purposes (Lindsay, Pg 1) After this decline the people of England reverted back to their English which was immensely inspired by the Alfred the Great.

When he was in his peak time he wrote many good books in old English. This contained many books which focused on religion. Many works on literature were also written in old English. A few examples of old English work is the Anglo Saxton chronicles. Such works of old English literature also contained Latin characters. At this point of time, English language had its many vernacular forms. This language was also affiliated to the social classes one primarily belonged. The lower class chose to communicate through English.

Many of the people who were travelling started to utilize the vernacular language that was being spoken in France. Particular a great ratio of the French vernacular was based on romance, which derived from people who noted the narrations which were being told by the wandering musicians. Such works we have found like Charlemagne finds its stems during the 12th century. Germany was the earliest to use the vernacular language. Evidence shows that the use of this language in Germany dates back to the eighth century.

Initially almost all the efforts to translate this language failed but during the twelfth century many of the stories which were in French was converted in German and that’s how language flourished in Germany. Most of the Europe adopted the vernacular language y the 14th century. At this point of time language was developing and grammar, syntax, spellings etc were not quite established and standardized. Although this was the developing period of the vernacular language but by this time a lot of literature was available that would eventually standardized their literature and also help in making other people belonging to different ethnicities would be able to communicate effectively because of a common language (Palmer 50-60).

As the Latin language was fading away there were three things that could apparently happen. Firstly, power and knowledge would be saturated as few people would only be literate. Secondly, people would start to educate themselves in order to survive and flourish. Lastly, the vernacular would be accepted and studied in order to serve as a way of communication and a common ground for business, law or faith. The people who were considered to be educated and enlightened were the poet and writers. They were the ones responsible to carry forward the old language in the common dialect.

They were not particularly interested in the conclusion or the end result of their work but were more focused on translating the wok and to transform it in such a way that the local common man could relate, understand and get entertained. These were the people who transformed the work of great scholars like Plato, Aristotle