Towards a Harmonious Coexistence of Spoken and Written Language

摘要

Spoken and written languages, despite their different nature and function in human society, have often been in conflicts rather than in harmony for centuries. Despite the incessant efforts made by phoneticians, linguists, speech therapists and more recently speech technologists to describe the interrelations and relative merits of written and spoken languages, the written language still enjoys its dominant status as a more authoritative and reliable means of communication in many countries. More serious and combined research efforts are required in future on the part of phoneticians, linguists, speech scientists and technologists, and speech therapists in order to bring about an ideal and balanced interchange and intercourse of spoken and written languages.