English vernacular
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- English vernacular
It is sometimes argued that the greatest contribution that The Canterbury Tales made to English literature was in popularising the literary use of the vernacular language, English (rather than French or Latin). However, English had been used as a literary language for centuries before Chaucer's life, and several of Chaucer's contemporaries—John Gower, William Langland, and the Pearl Poet—also wrote major literary works in English, making it unclear how much Chaucer was responsible for starting a trend rather than simply being part of it.
Henry Medwall (born circa 1462 , died 1502 ) was the first known English vernacular dramatist.
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