 To some scholars, this suggests the form of Vulgar Latin that evolved into the Romance languages was around during the time of the Roman Empire (from the end of the first century BC), and was spoken alongside the written Classical Latin which was reserved for official and formal occasions.Other scholars argue that the distinctions are more rightly viewed as indicative of sociolinguistic and register differences normally found within any language.Both were mutually intelligible as one and the same language, which was true until very approximately the second half of the 7th century.