LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:5 May 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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M. S. Thirumalai
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Juxtaposing Orality and Literacy

Ms. Ishrat

Abstract

Notwithstanding the fact that modern cultures have been operating through written modes of representation, orality has always been the fundamental carrier of knowledge since the genesis of human civilization. This fact has been corroborated by famous linguist Ferdinand de Saussure when he laid his focus on primacy of speech and went on to say that writing is nothing but a visible form of oral expression. He believes that writing has ‘shortcomings’ and ‘dangers’. Various critics and philosophers like Jacques Derrida and Plato find writing is a ‘lifeless’ kind of thing because there is not give and take response in it and the author is not always there to explain what he/she actually means. This paper discusses the aspects of orality and literacy both from historical and descriptive perspectives. Discussion relates to the relationship between the two with the identification of some features such as Aggregative rather than Analytic, Situational rather than Abstract, Empathetic and Participatory rather than Objectively Distanced, Agonistically toned, Redundant and Copious, etc.

Key words: Orality, literacy, writing, speech, shortcomings of writing, situational, abstract

Orality as the Basis

Language is so overwhelmingly oral that there are thousands of spoken languages which have been prevalent in human history, but only 106 languages have an advantage of writing up to the extent that they can produce literature. In the early years of human history, orality was considered as a carrier of knowledge. The term ‘knowledge’ here means everything or every aspect of life. Orality was the only medium of transferring historical, social, religious, medicinal and political facts from generation to generation.

Even today there are hundreds of myths, traditions and rituals that are prevalent in every society. Orality has always been a dynamic form of transferring knowledge. The verbal aspect of language is so dominant that we even think verbally or one can say that speech is inseparable from our consciousness. Oral aspect of language can exist without ‘writing’ but writing can never exist without ‘orality’. Due to this importance of orality ‘rhetoric’ which basically means ‘speech art’ has always been an important academic subject in western culture. Orality has its own relevance in every civilization of the earth and it can be understood well when we analyze them in depth.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Ms. Ishrat
Research Scholar
Department of English
BPS Mahila Vishwavidyalaya
Khanpur Kalan
Sonipat
Haryana India shabnamishrat786@gmail.com
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