Q1: How do the aliens’ language and communication styles in the story differ from human language?
The oral speech of aliens was considered as fluttering sounds with patterns that the human vocal tract could not reproduce.
Additionally, in the primary stages of research and observation, the aliens’ pictographs were defined as the term “logogram”, and their sentences are written by rotating and modifying the logograms for the constituent words. Therefore, the logograms weren’t alike the letters or characters that human use, which are usually arranged in rows, or a spiral, or any linear fashion. Instead, aliens would write a sentence by sticking together as many logograms as needed into a giant conglomeration.
As further experiments proceeded, researchers suggested the term “semagram”. A semagram corresponds roughly to a written word in human languages. It was meaningful on its own, and in combination with other semagrams could form endless statements.
Q2: How does the physical structure of our body inform the way we communicate? How about the aliens?
Humans use a larynx to make sounds and the human auditory system is optimized to recognize the sounds that humans themselves make, so our ears can’t recognize the distinctions that aliens consider meaningful.
While aliens look like a barrel suspended at the intersection of seven limbs, any of which can serve as an arm or leg and move in a disconcertingly fluid manner. The orifice at the top of its body is for respiration and speech, and the radial symmetry of their body enables them to read a word with equal ease no matter how it’s rotated.