The Art of Oratory and Speech Culture

Classical period of Oratory: Quintilian’s Influence

Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (A.D. 35–95) was a celebrated orator,rhetorician, Latin teacher and writer who promoted rhetorical theoryfrom ancient Greece and from the height of Roman rhetoric. Hiswork on rhetoric, the Institutio Oratoria, is an exhaustive volume oftwelve books and was a major contribution to educational theoryand literary criticism. Many later rhetoricians, especially from theRenaissance, derived their rhetorical theory directly from this text.The mind is exercised by the variety and multiplicity of the subject matter, while the character is molded by the contemplation of virtue and vice. – Quintilian During the hundred years plus which elapsed between the death of Cicero and the birth of Quintilian, education had vastly spread allover the Roman Empire, with rhetoric as the most important part of education. But by Quintilian’s time ( (Note: Gwynn, Aubrey. Roman Education from Cicero to Quintilian. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1926.)), the popular trend in oratory was not rhetoric in the traditional sense, rather it was called “silver Latin,” a style that favored ornate embellishment over clarity and precision. During this time rhetoric was primarily composed of three aspects: the theoretical (contemplating new rhetorical methods), the educational (teaching students the five canons), and the practical (courtroomand political speeches).

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    The issues of speech culture and speech etiquette in the East
    

In the history of Central Asian culture, too, dealing with the problems of speech culture and methodology has existed for a long time and has its own peculiarities. The famous Turkologist Mahmud Kashgari's “Devonu lug'otit turk” shows that some of the comments on this subject, the linguistic arguments cited, the issues of speech culture and speech etiquette have been raised since ancient times. Speaking at a beautiful and artistic level is also an art of keeping a short, meaningful speech etiquette in terms of content. In ancient times, the art of public speaking in the East was called “va’z” (oratory speech). The word “va’z” in Arabic means oratory, admonition, and the word “voiz” means a person who speaks eloquently. Until the ninth century, caliphs and shahs served as orators in the East. From the ninth century onwards, the rulers of the state entrusted this event to the masters of special words at their disposal, adding the word “Voiz” (orator) to their names.

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