Art by  silvergriffin21

Awakened birds use English, primarily, with local accents an avian-specific idioms to spice it up. They learned English first because they were engineered and trained by an American biotech firm and English was considered the most widely-used language. Very quickly there were teacher birds trained to train others the basics of operations and communication, but the birds still needed to be able to carry on two-way communication with humans to simplify tasking and reporting.

Writing is also taught as part of core curriculum and birds tend to pick it up fast. But because many birds don't utilize writing in daily life, the literacy rate is still only about 60%. Because of this, pictograms are used by many businesses in addition to lettered signs.

Birds in some locales adopted loanwords from non-English speaking cultures and localized accents have also developed over the centuries. Additionally, birds have their own perspective on the world, and a whole host of terms, some quite colorful, for their unique anatomy and lifestyles. For example, a common insult is to call someone a "ventsore," equivalent to "asshole" in English. Or the saying "leave that egg unhatched," referring to keeping a particularly momentous secret. As with our languages, these words can be appropriate for specific contexts (e.g., casual conversation, slang, or academic) and not for others. Most of us bird nuts will get it, but Book One comes with a dictionary in the back to help you navigate the new vocabulary, just in case the meanings aren't obvious.


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