phonocentrism

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noun

The idea that sounds and speech are inherently superior to (or more natural than) written language.

Scrabble 22

Meanings

nounphonocentrism (usually uncountable, plural phonocentrisms)

plural phonocentrisms

  1. uncountableusuallyThe idea that sounds and speech are inherently superior to (or more natural than) written language.
    1 more example

    In other words, social Darwinism was inextricably connected to phoneticism or, more precisely, what would a century later be criticized as "phonocentrism" - an understanding of language that gives primacy to spoken language as a spontaneous expression of the human mind, thus reducing written language to the status of mere representation of spoken sounds.

    2015, Minae Mizumura, translated by Mari Yoshihara and Juliet Winters Carpenter, The Fall of Language in the Age of English, Columbia University Press., page 124

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

phonocentrism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phonocentrism

MLA

“phonocentrism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phonocentrism. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “phonocentrism,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phonocentrism.

Source: phonocentrism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.