difference between vernacular language and colloquialisms?

louisoph

hi! i came across the 2017 english language exam report and for one of the short answers they said "cool" was a vernacular. i was wondering how would you distinguish between a vernacular and a colloquialisms as I would have thought "cool" is a colloquialism?

TSE-Tuition

Oooh, what a great question! I would say that vernacular language is regional (that is, it is specific to the regional dialect of English you're speaking) whereas colloquialism is much more broad and does not depend on the region. So 'wanna' would be colloquialism (as well as a host other things), but I agree the difference is slippery! It also does not help that language is constantly evolving and what is vernacular language one day may become a colloquialism later on ><