Definition of Language & Language Meduims

4. The Primacy of Speech over Writing

        Linguists hold that while many languages of the world are both written and spoken, more languages of the world are only spoken, and many languages of the world are spoken by more people than are written, therefore what is primary about language it that it is spoken. Written language is derived from spoken language, not vice versa. Therefore if we see a conflict between what is written and what is spoken, we will describe the language as actually being what is spoken. In fact most discrepancies between one norm or another in prescriptive grammar are conflicts over whether to follow spoken usage or written usage. Written usage is usually the norm of a previous stage of the language.

Accordingly, we can divide these primacies into 3 main types:

a) The Historical Priority: Human beings have known how to speak before knowing how to write. Also, thousands of speech communities rely on speech, as they have no written form of their language. Writing is a recent development in human societies.

b) The Biological Priority: Children acquire the spoken form of language naturally or automatically without any training or conscious efforts. However, learning to write is usually less spontaneous and less automatic. Children are given special instructions based on their prior knowledge of spoken language:

c) The Structural Priority: Most linguists make use of an alphabetical writing system which is an association or a linking of particular shapes(forms) with particular sounds according to spoken form. Therefore, the spoken form of language is structurally more basic than the written language.