Vulgar Latin or
Sermo Vulgaris ("common speech") is a generic term for the
nonstandard (as opposed to
classical)
sociolects of
Latin from which the
Romance languages developed. Works written in Latin during classical times used
Classical Latin rather than Vulgar Latin, with very few exceptions (most notably sections of
Gaius Petronius'
Satyricon). Because of its nonstandard nature, Vulgar Latin had no official
orthography. Vulgar Latin is sometimes also called
colloquial Latin, or
Common Romance (particularly in the late stage). In
Renaissance Latin, Vulgar Latin was called
vulgare Latinum or
Latinum vulgare.