The way that aliens communicate in the Story of Your Life, is really different from how us humans communicate. For example, humans and aliens have different vocal tracts. Aliens in the story communicate orally through “flutters” in which human ears are not accommodated to distinguish. But for humans, we make sounds that can clearly be differentiated from the other sounds. Another difference in the way humans and aliens communicate is that Alien’s spoken and written language are not related at all, while we write and speak the same things (glottographic). The Alien’s written language known as “Heptapod B” is classified as semasiographic, meaning that what they write is being conveyed without any references to their speech patterns.
Human bodies are completely different compared to aliens. We produce sounds through our throats, vocal cords, mouths, and sometimes body language is added. On the other hand, aliens do not have throats, so they produce sounds that humans can’t understand nor produce. Also, while humans develop a sequential mode of awareness, heptapods develop a simultaneous mode of awareness.