Here's a breakdown:
Latin:
* The dominant language of scholarship, religion, and government.
* Used in the Church, universities, law courts, and official documents.
* Not a spoken language for most people, but everyone with education was expected to be literate in Latin.
Vernacular Languages:
* Languages spoken by the common people.
* These varied greatly across Europe and developed over time.
* Some examples include:
* Romance languages: French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, Catalan.
* Germanic languages: English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic.
* Slavic languages: Polish, Czech, Slovak, Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian.
* Celtic languages: Irish, Welsh, Breton, Gaelic.
Other Factors:
* Regional dialects: Many vernacular languages had strong regional variations, often making communication difficult between different areas.
* Arabic: Spoken in parts of Spain and Sicily due to the influence of the Islamic world.
* Greek: Still spoken in parts of the Byzantine Empire, but its influence was declining by the end of the Middle Ages.
* Hebrew: Spoken by Jewish communities throughout Europe.
Key Points:
* Medieval society was multilingual, with people often using more than one language in their daily lives.
* The influence of Latin declined over time as vernacular languages became more standardized and prestigious.
* The Middle Ages saw the development of national languages, paving the way for the modern language landscape of Europe.
To learn more about the languages of a specific region or period, you'll need to do some research on the specific context.