The Oral Dimension

This chapter first examines the oral dimension of the dissemination of Sinitic texts in East Asia. Although a few individuals who had spent many years in China or who were of Chinese origin were able to read Chinese texts in some form of Chinese pronunciation, this was not the case even for most members of the elites, for few spent much time in China. In most societies, conventional pronunciations developed for Chinese characters and these conformed to local phonologies. The first stage of vernacularization, therefore, was in the oral domain. Conversely, however, since there was no common spoken language like Latin, opportunities for intellectual exchange with people from other societies were limited. The remainder of this chapter, therefore, examines the limited extent to which interpreters were trained and other people learned spoken foreign languages. The chapter concludes with an examination of brush conversation, a written substitute for oral conversation.