Harrison Edmunds (reading) rarity of writing

 Morality and Literacy makes an interesting point on the discrepancy between the number of spoken languages and the number that have been written. For how important writing is to people in the modern age there are shockingly only 106 written languages compared to the thousands of oral ones. If writing is so intrinsic to how people function now then why is it not more popular? Writing is one of the first things that we make sure is taught to children when they develop the ability to go to school, yet only 78 languages have literature of any kind. I never realized how few languages have a written word due to the importance of it. Even this class is centered on how oral religions have a completely different way of life, but it makes sense why they would be like that if there were only so many written languages actually developed.

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