The Origins of Russian Vernacular

The article is devoted to the problem of studying the origins of Russian vernacular. Data of analyzed materials and context from Russian national corpus shows that the concept of “in vernacular” was first recorded in the 17th century, it is understood as a “natural” language, free from the techniques of Western European rhetoric and Greek ornate. In first half of 18th century it is observed about the expansion of the semantics of vernacular: this is not only a rejection of the means of eloquence, but also ordinary Russian folk speech. However, the systematic use of the term will come later - in Lomonosov’s works, and it will be used as a stylistic mark in the Dictionary of the Russian Academy.