- How do aliens in the story language and communication style different from the human language (oral, pictographic, phonetic, etc.)?
The way that the aliens communicate in the story is different from how we communicate in many ways. One is that they communicate orally through “flutters” that are virtually indiscernible from each other, whereas we produce sounds that can clearly be differentiated from other sounds that we make. Another difference is that their spoken and written language are not related at all, while we write and speak the same things. The heptapod’s written language is simultaneous, which means that they have to know what they will be writing before they write it. It is different from human’s sequential language.
- How does the physical structure of our body inform the way we communicate? How about the aliens?
Humans physically go through a sequence of events when they communicate, whether it be the process that it takes to speak or if we are trying to communicate using gestures made with our body. It takes this sequence from beginning to end to know what humans are trying to communicate. However, the aliens do not need this sequence since they operate simultaneously and not sequentially.
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