Spoken means said aloud rather than written down. The spoken word, spoken English, softly spoken.
Spoken language came first by a hundred thousand years and writing is the newcomer, which is why linguists treat speech as the primary form and writing as a record of it. Spoken English differs from written English in grammar as well as vocabulary. Note well spoken, meaning speaking in a prestige accent, which is a social judgement.
1adjectivespokenSaid aloud rather than written down.
“Her spoken English is excellent, even though she has never lived abroad.”
spoken is a quality of speech.
The past participle of speak, from Old English sprecan. The r dropped out of the word in Middle English.
Proto-Indo-European
*spey-
Proto-Germanic
*spaikō
Proto-West Germanic
*spaikā
Old English
spāca
Middle English
spoke
English
spoke
English, today
spoken
Morphologically spoke + n. spoke comes from Middle English spoke, from Old English spāca, from Proto-West Germanic spaikā, from Proto-Germanic spaikō. Compare Scots spaik (“spoke”), Dutch spaak and spike.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA