Vulgar Latin is called the speech of the middle classes, as it grew out of Classic Latin. It is not an independent offshoot of Old Latin; it continues the Classic, not the primitive, vowel system. The Vulgar Latin period lasted from about 200 BC to about 600 AD and it is most sharply differentiated from Classic Latin in the last few centuries of this epoch.At the time of original publication in 1907, C. H. Grandgent was Professor of Romance Languages at Harvard University.