Dialects of Latin

Throughout Roman history, there was regional variation in the Latin language. In certain regions, terms or morphological features from pre-Roman substrate languages were borrowed into the local dialects. For instance, the dialect of Gaul borrowed terms from their native Gaulish language, which was spoken by the Gauls, a Celtic people. Regional dialects were often perceived as inferior to the prestige "Roman" dialect, which—in the view of some authors—may have constituted a genuine style of speech common to the city of Rome. However, other authors perceived their ideal "Roman dialect" as an artificial, prescribed standard of "correct" speech that did not necessarily reflect the vernacular of any given region.