HomeOrality in All Its Forms Across the World's Languages

Orality in All Its Forms Across the World's Languages

L’oral dans tous ses états à travers les langues du monde

 الشفوي في جميع حالاته عبر لغات العالم

Linguistic, Literary, and Sociocultural Challenges

التحدّيات اللغويّة والأدبيّة والاجتماعيّة الثقافيّة

Enjeux linguistiques, littéraires et socioculturels

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Published on Friday, April 18, 2025

Abstract

Français English

This international conference (November 20-22, 2025, University of Sousse) delves into the multifaceted nature of orality, exploring its linguistic, literary, and sociocultural significance across global languages. Central themes include: the structural dynamics of oral language (prosody, gestures, and real-time syntax), methodological challenges in transcribing and annotating oral corpora, and the sociolinguistic hierarchies between spoken and written forms. The conference also investigates how digital technologies are reshaping orality through hybrid communication tools like voice interfaces and AI-driven transcription.

Announcement

Français English العربية

International Conference  - November 20–22, 2025

Argument

As the primary manifestation of human language, orality is omnipresent: spontaneous or codified, ephemeral or memorable, intimate or public, it permeates all communication spaces. Whether natural or refined, formal or informal, face-to-face or mediated, it shapes daily exchanges, all forms of discourse (academic, cultural, political, etc.), artistic practices, and technological innovations.

Despite its ubiquity, orality remains elusive, embedded in the flow of time and destined to vanish upon utterance (verba volant, scripta manent). Unlike writing, which fixes and materializes language, orality exists only in the dynamics of its enunciation. Analyzing it thus requires translating it into spatial terms: transcribing, segmenting, and freezing it into a graphic representation that inevitably alters its fluid and spontaneous nature.

Indeed, the transition from oral to written language is not merely a matter of transcription but a genuine transformation, where each medium imposes its own constraints and redefines the very structure of language. The difference between oral and written language is not only functional but also material and cognitive. Orality is a sonic flow, immediate and contextual, supported by intonation (pauses, rhythmic variations, etc.) and multimodality (gaze, body posture, gestures—see Jacques Cosnier, 1996). Shaped in real time, its syntax is co-constructed and adjusted (see Peter Auer’s concept of syntax on-line, 2000). Writing, on the other hand, is a spatial inscription, segmented and independent of the context of enunciation. It aims to translate the temporal flow into structural progression, smoothing out hesitations, eliminating redundancies, and presenting a self-sufficient syntax at both the sentence and text levels.

Between orality and writing, there is thus not mere transcription but adaptation, sometimes reinvention.

The differences between orality and writing, initially medial, must be distinguished from how they are perceived and represented, whether in grammar, public opinion, or literary productions, where orality is often reconstructed, stylized, or staged according to the constraints and aesthetics of writing. The work of Peter Koch and Wulf Oesterreicher (2001) proposes viewing orality and writing not as a binary opposition but as a communicative continuum structured around two poles: the language of proximity, associated with orality, characterized by spontaneity, direct interaction, and flexible syntax, and the language of distance, associated with writing, involving more deliberate structuring and discursive autonomy. This perspective allows for an exploration of the diverse relationships between orality and writing across languages and usages. In French, where spontaneous orality and standardized writing show marked syntactic gaps, the transition between the two requires significant reformulation. In Arabic, only the standard form is written and taught, while so-called dialectal varieties, primarily oral, remain socially undervalued, creating a diglossic situation that can sometimes be contentious. Other systems, such as Chinese, exhibit relative autonomy between writing and phonetics, while some languages with strong oral traditions have only recently developed writing systems.

[In this context, Langlois (2012: 99) identifies a duality and a form of "companionship" between orality and writing since the latter's emergence. Speech is indeed primary, innate, and defining for the human species, but language has been refined and has evolved alongside the technology of writing, just as it now adapts to new communication technologies (Hagège, 1985: 89–91). There is thus an inevitable interdependence between these two tools of thought. If humans are homo sapiens, acting consciously, they are first and foremost homo loquens, "dialogical beings," biologically predisposed to become "beings of speech," who may, but not necessarily, become "beings of writing" (Hagège, 1985: 198). In summary, while there is no radical dichotomy between orality and writing, there are real differences, both in terms of value and cognitive benefits (cf. Langlois, ibid.).]

These various models of the difference between orality and writing are themselves being challenged today by the advent of digital humanities, which redraw the boundaries between the two. In terms of usage, digital technologies foster hybrid forms of communication, such as voice messages, automatic subtitles, or voice interfaces, where orality and writing constantly intertwine. On a scientific and methodological level, new computational approaches allow for the direct analysis of sound signals without transcription, using models like wav2vec 2.0 or HuBERT. These advances challenge the primacy of writing in the study of language and pave the way for a better inclusion of languages with limited written resources.

Themes for Reflection

In addition to welcoming studies on orality, this conference invites an exploration of the processes of transformation and interaction between orality and writing through several themes:

1. Orality and Language Structure

How do the inherent characteristics of orality (prosody, gestures, rhythmic variations) influence discourse construction? How does orality shape the syntactic and pragmatic structures of languages? What are the boundaries between orality and writing in languages where these distinctions are particularly marked (diglossia, plurigraphism)?

2. From Orality to Corpora: Transcription and Annotation

The annotation of oral data, of which transcription is a key component (see Abouda, Lefeuvre & Badin, forthcoming), structures and interprets speech to enable analysis. But any textual representation involves selection: what granularity should be adopted? How can quantitative measurement and the "grain" of language (cf. Rastier, 2011) be reconciled?

Orality, fluid and multidimensional, resists complete fixation. Transcription and annotation, by highlighting certain phenomena—prosody, syntax, interaction—are like maps of language, each privileging a particular perspective. But the map is not the territory: it guides interpretation as much as it structures the data. How, then, can these choices be made to ensure the most relevant representation possible?

3. Norms, Representations, and Hierarchization of Language Forms

For centuries, writing has been upheld as the model of linguistic legitimacy, relegating orality to a secondary position. How has this hierarchy been established across cultural and historical contexts? To what extent do speakers evaluate their own oral usage and that of others in relation to written norms? How do educational, academic, and media institutions contribute to this structuring?

4. Orality and Technology: Hybridizations and Reconfigurations

Far from a rigid opposition between orality and writing, contemporary digital practices reveal a continuum between these two modes of expression. Orality is now recorded, automatically transcribed, archived, replayed, or even simulated by artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, writing borrows codes of orality through texts, instant messages, emojis, or automatic subtitles. How do these practices redefine the specificities of orality and writing? What challenges do they pose in terms of linguistic normativity, memorization, and discourse authenticity? How do digital humanities challenge traditional distinctions between these two modes of expression?

5. Orality and Literary Creation

To what extent does literature seek to capture orality, stylize it, or recompose it? What techniques are used to render speech in text, whether in narrative, theater, or poetry? How does literature play with the boundaries between the language of proximity and the language of distance? Is orality a constraint, a resource, or an artifice in literature?

A central dimension of this relationship lies in the often fantasized representation of popular language, which oscillates between fascination and distancing. Far from being a mere reflection of linguistic practices, the transcription of orality in literature often involves a reconstruction that accentuates certain traits while erasing others, thereby interrogating the hierarchies between writing and orality. This staging of orality reflects a tension between a legitimist approach, seeking to preserve written norms, and a more populist stance, advocating the expressiveness of an oral language deemed more authentic or aesthetic, more conducive to stylistic inventiveness. How do these issues manifest in authors' stylistic and aesthetic choices? To what extent does literary orality reflect linguistic ideologies and social representations of language?

6. Diachrony of Orality

As William Labov describes historical linguistics as "the great art of making the best use of bad data" (1994: 11), it is because "the further back in time we go, the sparser, more discontinuous,

less diverse, and sometimes poorly documented the data, necessarily written, become" (Marchello-Nizia et al., 2020: 34). Linguistic change, originating and spreading primarily orally, seems particularly difficult to document over the long diachrony, which, at best, has only written data. Hence the emergence of the field of represented orality (Marchello-Nizia, 2012; Lefeuvre & Parussa, 2020), which seeks to uncover traces of orality in available written texts, and that of micro-diachrony of orality (Abouda & Skrovec, 2022), which aims to bridge long diachrony and variationist sociolinguistics. What clues allow for the reconstruction of vanished oral forms? To what extent do ancient texts stylize orality rather than reflect it? How has the gap between orality and writing evolved over time? How does documenting linguistic change in real time on recent oral data consolidate methods of long diachrony? This theme invites an exploration of ways to analyze orality from a diachronic and micro-diachronic perspective, between documentation, linguistic reconstruction, and literary staging.

7. Teaching Orality

School is a place of constant verbal exchange (Langlois, 2012), but orality occupies a paradoxical status there: omnipresent in interactions, it is both a tool and an object of learning, without yet establishing itself as a discipline in its own right (Nonnon, 1994). Despite its recognition in official documents, its didacticization remains complex, notably due to the predominance of writing in school learning (Gadet & Guérin, 2008).

Studies in sociolinguistics and variation remind us of the importance of considering the diversity of oral usages and their actualizations in the classroom. Should orality be taught through specific functional situations, or does its acquisition primarily rely on informal learning through interaction? These questions extend to both the mother tongue and foreign language learning, where mastery of oral skills is central.

In this perspective, research on the grammar of orality (Weber, 2013) and contemporary communication modes (Weber, 2019) opens new avenues for integrating orality into learning. The interplay between prosody, nonverbal communication, and gestures plays a key role in this teaching. The concept of the "learning body" (Lapaire, 2022) and enactive approaches (Aden, 2016) underscore the importance of sensorimotor dimensions in the acquisition of oral skills. Similarly, work on "pedagogical gesture" (Tellier, 2013) shows how teachers' gestures support comprehension and language appropriation.

How can the learning of orality be articulated with other linguistic skills? What tools and frameworks allow for better consideration of nonverbal communication? To what extent do multimodality and new forms of communication transform the teaching of orality?

8. Translating Orality: Between Spontaneity, Fidelity, and Technologies

“The conference interpreter must be able to provide an exact and faithful reproduction of the original speech. Deviation from the letter of the original is permissible only if it enhances the audience's understanding of the speaker's meaning” (Jones, 2002: 4). The translation of orality, whether interpretative or automatic, poses a constant challenge between faithful reproduction of the source discourse and the necessary adaptation for communicative effectiveness. Unlike written translation, which allows for in-depth reformulation, oral translation requires instant, fluid, and context-adapted restitution, with no possibility of revision.

Simultaneous, consecutive, or whispered interpretation mobilizes specific skills that account for temporal constraints and the ephemeral nature of oral discourse. But what happens to the oral specificities of discourse when it is translated live? Is the speaker's spontaneity preserved or sacrificed for the sake of clarity and effectiveness? To what extent do the type of discourse and the context of interpretation influence the treatment of orality in the target language?

Moreover, technological advancements are transforming the practices and challenges of oral translation. Artificial intelligence, voice recognition, and machine translation tools offer new approaches that redefine the skills required of interpreters and translators. Faced with these developments, how can the training of future professionals be adapted? Which pedagogical tools should be prioritized to develop rapid analysis and precise restitution skills? To what extent can technologies complement, or even compete with, human expertise in linguistic mediation?

An Interdisciplinary Conference

This conference is aimed at linguists, literary scholars, anthropologists, historians of language, and media specialists working in the world's languages, who wish to explore these issues in all their diversity. It invites a confrontation of different linguistic and literary traditions to reflect on the multiple ways in which orality and writing interact, transform, and reconfigure themselves.

We encourage proposals adopting theoretical, descriptive, or applied approaches, as well as case studies illustrating the plurality of relationships between orality and writing in different languages and cultures.

Submission Guidelines

Each presentation will last 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion. Anonymous proposals must be submitted on the Sciencesconf platform

by June 30, 2025 (inclusive).

Proposals should not exceed 500 words (excluding bibliography) and may be written in French, Arabic, or English. Each proposal must include a title, specify the relevant theme(s), and clearly outline the research question, theoretical framework, and methodology. All proposals will undergo double-blind peer review by the scientific committee.

Presentations may be delivered in French, Arabic, or English. To facilitate mutual understanding, organizers recommend preparing slides in French, regardless of the presentation language.

Calendar

  • Call for papers released: April 1, 2025

  • Submission deadline: July 15, 2025

  • Notification of acceptance or rejection: September 1, 2025
  • Registration deadline: September 30, 2025
  • Program release: October 7, 2025
  • Conference dates: November 20–22, 2025
  • Conference Languages: French, Arabic, English

Registration Fees

  • PhD students and young foreign researchers: €60; free for local
  • PhD students Established foreign researchers: €150; local researchers: 60 DT
  • Fees cover three lunches, coffee breaks, and administrative and communication costs (abstracts, notepads, etc.).
  • Gala dinner: Friday, November 21 (7:00 PM): €30
  • Optional excursion (Saturday, November 22 afternoon, Takrouna, a Berber village): €20 Or visit to the Medina and Sousse Museum (museum entrance fees apply).

Organizing committee

  • ABOUDA Lotfi (University of Orléans, France)
  • AZOUZI Ammar (University of Sousse, Tunisia)
  • BOUCHAREB Sonia (University of Sousse, Tunisia)
  • DO-HURINVILLE Danh-Thành (University of Marie et Louis Pasteur, France)
  • CHEN Lian (University of Orléans, France)
  • DAO Huy-Linh (Inalco, France)
  • HACEN Aymen (University of Monastir, Tunisia)
  • HOCHLAF Sami (University of Sousse, Tunisia)
  • URSI Biagio (University of Orléans, France)
  • ZELFANI Rim (University of Sousse, Tunisia) 
  • ZRIGUE Anissa (University of Kairouan, Tunisia)

Welcome committee

  • BEN ZINEB Emna (University of Sousse, Tunisia)
  • CHALBI Soumer (University of Sousse, Tunisia)
  • CHOUAIEB Afef (University of Sousse, Tunisia)
  • GHRIB Siwar (University of Sousse, Tunisia)
  • IFAOUI Imen (University of Sousse, Tunisia)
  • ISSAOUI Yousra (University of Sousse, Tunisia)
  • MANSOURI Kawthar (University of Sousse, Tunisia)
  • REBHI Seif (University of Sousse, Tunisia)

Guest speakers

  • CANDEA Maria (University of Sorbonne Nouvelle, France)
  • CHAKER Jamil (University of Tunis, Tunisia)
  • LEFEUVRE Florence (University of Sorbonne Nouvelle, France)
  • Mohamed Salaheddine Cherif (Distinguished Professor of Linguistics, Department of Arabic, University of Manouba, Tunisia)

Scientific committee

  • ABDELKEFI Hédia (University of El Manar, Tunisia)
  • ABOUDA Lotfi (LLL, University of Orléans, France)
  • AZOUZI Ammar (University of Sousse, Tunisia)
  • BAZANTAY Jean (Inalco, France)
  • BEN SAAD Nizar (University of Sousse, Tunisia)
  • BLANCO-ESCODA Xavier (Barcelona Autonomous University, Spain)
  • BOUHLEL Ezzedine (University of Sousse, Tunisia)
  • BRIKI Radhouane (University of Sousse, Tunisia)
  • CARON Elsa (ELLIADD, University of Marie et Louis Pasteur, France)
  • CHAKER Jamil (University of Tunis, Tunisia)
  • CHEN Lian (LLL, University of Orléans, France)
  • CHIHA Monem (University of Kairouan, Department of Arabic, Tunisia)
  • COSTA Rute (University Nova of Lisbon, CLUNL, Portugal)
  • DAGHRIR Wassim (University of Sousse Department of English, Tunisia)
  • DACIANA Vlad (University of Oradea, Romania)
  • DAO Huy-Linh (CRLAO-CNRS, Inalco, France)
  • DO-HURINVILLE Danh-Thành (ELLIADD, University of Marie et Louis Pasteur, France)
  • DOSTIE Gaétane (University of Sherbrooke, Canada)
  • DUGUA Céline (LLL, University of Orléans, France)
  • EQUOY-HUTIN Séverine (ELLIADD, University of Marie et Louis Pasteur, France)
  • GÓMEZ FERNÁNDEZ Araceli (National University of Distance Education, Spain)
  • HAMZA MOHAMED (University of Sousse, Department of Arabic, Tunisia)
  • HIM AQUILLI Manon (ELLIADD, University of Marie et Louis Pasteur, France)
  • KANAAN-CAILLOL Layal (University of Orléans)
  • KLAI Lassaad (University of Carthage, Tunisia)
  • LABIDI Samir (University of Tunis, Tunisia)
  • LEFEUVRE Florence (CLESTHIA, University of Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, France)
  • LIU Michel (Plidam, Inalco, France)
  • MASSOUD Iman (Plidam, Inalco, France)
  • MEDHAT-LECOCQ Héba (University of Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, France)
  • MODICOM Pierre-Yves (University of Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France)
  • NGUYEN Thuc-Thanh-Tin (HCM University of Education, Vietnam)
  • OSU Sylvester (LLL, University of Tours, France)
  • PERBET Héloïse (ELLIADD, University of Marie et Louis Pasteur, France)
  • PLOOG Katja (LLL, University of Orléans, France)
  • RAY Alice (LLL, University of Orléans, France)
  • SKROVEC Marie (LLL, University of Orléans, France)
  • SCHANG Emmanuel (LLL, University of Orléans, France)
  • SIMON Justine (ELLIADD, University of Marie et Louis Pasteur, France)
  • SZENDE Thomas (Plidam, Inalco, France)
  • THEOPHANOUS Olga (LNPL, University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, France)
  • TOUPIN Fabienne (LLL, University of Tours, France)
  • TRABELSI Mustapha (University of Sfax, Tunisia)
  • URSI Biagio (LLL, University of Orléans, France)
  • VERON Laélia (POLEN, University of Orléans, France)
  • WISSNER Inka (ELLIADD, University of Marie et Louis Pasteur, France)
  • ZAIEM Farah (University of Manouba, Tunisia)

French bibliography

ABOUDA L., LEFEUVRE F. & BADIN F. (2025), Langages, 238, numéro thématique « L’Annotation de l’oral », à paraître en juin 2025.

ABOUDA L. & SKROVEC M. (2022), « Micro-diachronie de l’oral », Langages, 226, 9-24.

ADEN J. (2016), « Travailler sur et à partir de textes écrits en classe de langue étrangère. Des prescriptions et supports d’enseignement aux pratiques des enseignants et aux apprentissages des élèves», Recherches en didactique des langues et des cultures, Les Cahiers de l’Acelle, https://doi.org/10.4000/rdlc.1153

AUER P. (2000), « Projection in interaction and projection in grammar”, Text 25 (1), 7-36.

BEGUELIN M.-J. (1998), « Le rapport écrit-oral : tendances assimilatrices, tendances dissimilatrices »,

Cahiers de linguistique française 20, 229-253

BLANCHE-BENVENISTE C. et alii (1990), Le français parlé : études grammaticales, Paris, Éditions du CNRS.

BLANCHE-BENVENISTE C. ([1997] 2000), Approches de la langue parlée en français, Gap, Ophrys.

BLASCO M. & BODELOT C. (éds) (2017), Langages, 208 : Langue parlée / langue écrite, du latin au français : un clivage dans l’histoire de la langue ?, Malakoff, Dunod Éditeur.

COSNIER J., REY F., ROBERT F. (1996), « Le corps, les affects et la relation à l’autre », Thérapie familiale, Genève, Vol. 17, N° 2, pp. 195-200.

GADET F. (1999), « La langue française au XXe siècle. I. L’émergence de l’oral », dans J. Chaurand (éd.), Nouvelle histoire de la langue française, Paris, Seuil, 583-674.

GADET F. (2017), « L’oralité ordinaire à l’épreuve de la mise en écrit : ce que montre la proximité », Langages, 208, 113-129.

GADET F. et GUERIN E. (2008), Le couple oral / écrit dans une sociolinguistique à visée didactique, Le français aujourd’hui, 2008/3, pages 21 -27

HAGÈGE C. (1985), L'Homme de paroles, Paris, Fayard. JONES R. (2002), Conference Interpreting Explained, Routledge.

KOCH P. & OESTERREICHER W. (2001), « Gesprochene Sprache und geschriebene Sprache /Langage parlé et langage écrit », in G. Holtus, M. Metzeltin & C. Schmitt (eds), Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik (LRL), Bd. 1, Tübingen, Niemeyer, 584-627.

LABOV W. (1994), Principles of Linguistic Change, Vol. 1: Internal Factors, Malden/Oxford, Blackwell.

LANGLOIS R. (2012), Les Précurseurs de l’oralité scolaire en Europe. Presses universitaires de Rouen et du Havre, https://doi.org/10.4000/books.purh.5789

LAPAIRE J.-R. (2022), « Le “corps apprenant” : une notion centrale en mal d’inclusion », in H. Duval, C. Raymond & D. Odier-Duedj (dir.), Engager le corps pour enseigner et apprendre. Diversité de perspectives, Presses Universitaires de Laval.

LEFEUVRE F. & PARUSSA G. (2020), « L’oral représenté en diachronie et en synchronie : une voie d’accès à l’oral spontané ? », Langages 217, 9-21.

MAHER R. (2017), Phonographie : la représentation écrite de l’oral en français, Berlin, De Gruyter.

MARCHELLO-NIZIA C. (2012), « L’oral représenté en français médiéval : un accès construit à une face cachée des langues mortes », dans C. Guillot et alii (éds), Le changement en français : études de linguistique diachronique, Berne, Peter Lang, 247-264.

MARCHELLO-NIZIA C. et alii (éds) (2020), Grande Grammaire Historique du Français, vol. 1, Berlin/Boston, Walter de Gruyter GmbH.

NONNON E., 1994 : La didactique de l'oral : un chantier à ouvrir. Enjeux, limites et perspectives PARUSSA G. (2018), « La représentation de l’oral à l’écrit et la diachronie du français : un nouveau projet de recherche », dans W. Ayres-Bennett et alii (éds), Nouvelles voies d’accès au changement linguistique, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 181-199.

PATERNOSTRO R. (2020), « Des élèves francophones » en classe de français langue étrangère / seconde en Suisse italienne : hétérogénéité(s) et convergence(s), Le français aujourd'hui 2020/1 N° 208, pages 43 à 59.

PERNET-Liu « L’exposé oral à l’université en Chine : oralité et littératie universitaires et chinoises », Pratiques, 2019/183-184.

PHILIPPE G. (2009), « Langue littéraire et langue parlée », dans G. Philippe & J. Piat (éds), La langue littéraire : une histoire de la prose en France de Gustave Flaubert à Claude Simon, Paris, Fayard, 57- 90.

RASTIER F. (2011), La mesure et le grain. Sémantique de corpus, Paris, Champion, ROUAYRENC C. (1996), « Le parlé dans le roman », Versants 30, 31-44.

TELLIER M. (2013), « Je gestualise, donc j’enseigne. La place du geste pédagogique en classe de langue », Érudit, Revues, Québec français, Mémoires de Gabrielle Roy, Numéro 170, pp. 62–63

VIGNEAULT- ROUYARENC C. (1991), « L’oral dans l’écrit : histoire(s) d’E », Langue française 89, 20- 34.

WEBER C. (2013), Pour une didactique de l'oralité, enseigner le français tel qu'il est parlé, Didier.

Subjects

Places

  • Salle Adonis - Faculté des lettres et des Sciences humaines de Sousse, Cité Riadh
    Sousse, Tunisia (4029)

Event attendance modalities

Full on-site event


Date(s)

  • Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Keywords

  • oral, oralité, représentation, représenté, langue

Contact(s)

  • Lotfi Abouda
    courriel : lotfi [dot] abouda [at] univ-orleans [dot] fr
  • Ammar Azouzi
    courriel : ammarazouzi [dot] flshs [at] gmail [dot] com
  • Lian CHEN
    courriel : loselychen [at] gmail [dot] com
  • Thanh DO-Hurinville
    courriel : danh_thanh [dot] do-hurinville [at] univ-fcomte [dot] fr

Reference Urls

Information source

  • Ammar Azouzi
    courriel : ammarazouzi [dot] flshs [at] gmail [dot] com

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Orality in All Its Forms Across the World's Languages », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Friday, April 18, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/13rtv

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