Language before writing

From Aeon: "As the theorist Walter J Ong pointed out in 'Orality and Literacy: Technologizing the Word' (1982), it is difficult, perhaps even impossible, now to imagine how differently language would have been experienced in a culture of 'primary orality'. There would be nowhere to 'look up a word', no authoritative source telling us the shape the word 'actually' takes. There would be no way to affirm the word's existence at all except by speaking it – and this necessary condition of survival is important for understanding the relatively repetitive nature of epic poetry. Say it over and over again, or it will slip away."