What is "orality"

n. The state of being oral

Orality is thought and verbal expression in societies where the technologies of literacy (especially writing and print) are unfamiliar to most of the population. The study of orality is closely allied to the study of oral tradition. However, it has broader implications, implicitly touching every aspect of the economics, politics, institutional development, and human development of oral societies. The study of orality has important implications for international development, especially as it relates to the goal of eradicating poverty, as well as to the process of globalization.

In his later publications Walter J. Ong, a key scholar in this field, distinguishes between two forms of orality: ‘primary orality’ and ‘secondary orality’. In his earlier publications Ong uses the terms 'primarily oral culture' and 'secondarily oral culture'. He works with the contrast of primary orality and secondary orality as the way to establish what one thing is by indicating what it is not: Secondary orality is not primary orality. In addition, he refers to 'oral residue' and 'residually oral cultures'. Following his example in coining the terms primary orality and secondary orality, we can refer to residual orality.