Literacy throughout history was actually pretty high. People knew the alphabet, and could read and write their own language for the most part, even if the grammar and spelling may not be consistent. I do not think spelling was too standardized, yet if you could understand the letters, you could read it phonetically and understand. The reason it has been believed that literacy rate was low is because unless you knew how to read and write Latin, you did not count for literacy statistics for the monarchies and clergies. It could be summarized as: "if you cannot read the Catholic Bible, you aren't literate." This is why the Lutheran Protestant movement was so significant, as they translated the Bible and made it available to everyone not just the elite who could understand Latin.
Of course, historical literacy is nothing compared to modern literacy, and they're two different things, but people were mostly by no means actually illiterate, even if they would be considered such by modern standards.
Because of this, and the fact that Azeroth is rather progressive on many fronts despite a feudal society, I think literacy rates are high, even if majority may only be able to read and write their own language.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy#cite_note-70 said:
Of course, historical literacy is nothing compared to modern literacy, and they're two different things, but people were mostly by no means actually illiterate, even if they would be considered such by modern standards.
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