Vernacular is the everyday language spoken by ordinary people in a place or community. In poetry, it can describe the use of local speech, informal wording, or a poet's native language rather than elevated, standardized, or literary language. Poets may choose vernacular to sound more natural, to preserve a regional voice, or to bring a speaker's culture and identity into the poem.
Example
Ma says supper's ready, come on in, the porch light's still on
and the evening smells of rain, beans, and cut grass.
Related Definitions
[n] the everyday speech of the people (as distinguished from literary language)
[n] a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves); "they don't speak our lingo"
[adj] being or characteristic of or appropriate to everyday language; "common parlance"; "a vernacular term"; "vernacular speakers"; "the vulgar tongue of the masses"; "the technical and vulgar names for an animal species"