Human speech is a means of communication, and language is the specific pattern of that communication, the pattern by which we convey meaning to one another. There are many languages as different peoples have developed their specific means of communicating. Human speech is different from the written language. Oral communication is not entirely by spoken language. It also includes gestures and physical attitudes included as non-verbal language. Among the forms of non-linguistic representation are gestures, bodily signification such as costume or tattoos, vocalization, and physical/environmental signification as seen in architecture or the landscape.
Myths have been developed to explain the origin of language, often assuming that there was once a single proto-language from which all other languages developed. One theory is that words developed as humans imitated nature and tried to sound like what they were describing. The Tower of Babel is a mythological representation of the shift from one language to many. The advent of writing contributed to language standardization, though language continues to change.
The impetus for communication is considerable, and different languages, dialects, and vernaculars developed among different populations as they communicated specialized material or simply developed their own way of communicating with one another. This process is ongoing, and we can see in our own communication how new words come into being and how we use non-verbal as well as verbal language every day.
We think of literacy as evidence of educational achievement and as the basis for further education. We want children to recapitulate the process undergone by humanity at large, moving from orality to literacy. The process tends to see orality as a lesser level of learning, just as the thought processes of children are seen as chaotic and unformed when compared to adults. Egan and Havelock both note that oral lear...