What Are The Differences Between Speech And Writing?

An obvious difference between speech and writing is the fact that speaking is listened to and talked, whereas writing is read and hand-written or typed. These are not, however, the only distinctions when it comes to speech and writing; in fact there are many differences.

Age is one the main differences. Speech has been around for millions of years; quite possibly since life as we know it began on earth. Writing, on the other hand, is thought to have been invented far more recently than that, although still a long time ago in relation to today's fast-paced world, in approximately 3200 BC.  

Without getting too embroiled in the whole nature/nurture debate; speech is arguably almost an innate function of human beings, in that we are born with the ability to do so. Most humans will learn to talk within the first two years of their life; learning almost an entire language by the age of five. Writing on the other hand, is said to be an acquired skill which develops after learning to talk. It is believed that globally, all humans can communicate in some kind of spoken form, whereas there are still tribal groups today who do not have the ability to write.

Until fairly recently (when recording devices were invented) speech could not be kept in its original form and heard back once it had been spoken. Writing, on the other hand, has enabled humans to record changes for many thousands of years. Even though we now have the capability to record sound bites to take through into the future, it is highly likely that text and writing will still outlast the recorded snippets which we may leave behind.

Consider the differences between speech and writing.

... Consider the differences between speech and writing Speech and writing are both ways of communicating using language. Writing can be thought of as speech written down, but the relationship between the two isn't as straightforward as this. Speech may be considered the primary mode of communication in the sense that we speak before we can write. Speech has been around for about a million years whereas writing has only been in existence for about five and a half thousand years. Many communities have no written form of their spoken language and it is estimated that forty per cent of the world's population is illiterate. This has led Perrera (1984) to suggest that "Speaking is as fundamental a part of being human as walking upright but writing is an optional extra." Speech is usually unplanned and can be full of running repairs such as false starts, hesitations, repetitions and 'fillers' such as

Speech and writing are two modes of communication through language through language,complementary in function.Speech is oral form making use of phonetic substance,i.e.,speech sounds,and writing is the graphic form making use of graphic substance,i.e,written symbols like the letters of the alphabet.the written form of language is only the attempt at representing the spoken form with the help of certain symbols.while speech is transient,writing is more stable and it is the potential means of preserving for posterity valuable literature,philosophical thinking ,etc,of the past.speech enjoys the extralinguistic aids like gestures,facial expressions,stress,pitch,etc on the part of the speaker and the listener,while writing has only the limited resources of the alphabet and punctuation marks.

Hi Well its interesting because I'm writing this to you and Blurtit-ing it too.

The differences between speech and writing is that when you write something then it comes from your mind and you can get marked on it, where as a speech you can get yourself asked questions on the spot and you have to come up with something that you would not normally answer but you have to because it could be very important. A speech takes time to prepare were as writing doesn't take that long to do. A speech can be something important or a writing can be more important than speaking, there are many different things that makes them different but I can't name them all.

Speech is based on writing. Writing is not a matter of time, while speech is focused on the transient expression.

Speech is when you say it out loud but when you say something it can not be changed.
Writing is normal of coarse anyway when you write something you can change it back for example like writing a book you write the first part then if you get mistakes you write it over and over until there are no mistakes!!

I personally always hated writing