When I wake up the next day, there's a folded paper on the counter. Turns out Ange got up early and wrote a full two pages about verbs and pronouns and how speaking still follows "they are," you don't say "they is" you just sound stupid like that, I get distracted with all the : ) Ange's put around the paper and

***

Disclaimer from the Narrator: the sign language Nudibranc and her family use doesn't have "be" verbs (or many prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, etc.) so when signing "we are happy," you'd just sign "we happy."

So "they are" vs "they is" isn't an issue in sign language since neither "are" or "is" exist, this is why Ange's writing all this stuff on a paper.

But, turns out, having all the dialogue in this story not use "be" verbs--or use many prepositions, adverbs, etc. and otherwise stay wholly accurate to the literal interpretations of the sign language (ie, follow all the grammar rules of a sign language within written text)--would be difficult to read and understand.

In real life sign language, you convey everything visually--through arm movements, orientation, body expressions, shapes, etc.

But in written text, all you've got are words. So, dialogue in this story states that it's in sign language, except written in a way to convey meaning and character through their words, thereby breaking sign language rules in the process.

***

And Ange goes on a tangent about how in speaking you might say "they are breathing," like a big crowd just floating there gasping through their gills, but "they are breathing" could just be Hamme, breathing by themselves and Ange's sometimes confused if it's "themselves" or "themself" but he's pretty sure it's "themselves" most of the time and definitely for Hamme in particular, and also, in speaking people say "they" to refer to a single person quite frequently (not all the time, but frequently), like if someone leaves a scarf in our store we'd say "they leave their scarf."

So I guess that makes sense and now I can say "they leave their scarf" and point like I'm referring to a big group of people but actually only mean one person. Before, I was just saying "a person leaves a scarf."

And also in speaking and writing you say "he" or "she" but in signing, for pronouns, you just point at the person, so no one's ever signed "he" or "she" for any of their friends, and I don't know if anyone ever uses "guy" or "girl" words on a regular basis, so it probably should've been obvious I'd have no way to know Hamme didn't use "he" or "guy."

I count up the : ) Ange doodled on the paper. He's put one an average of every three lines of text. Then I fold the paper up neatly and stick it in the wardrobe by my door to maybe read again at some point when I get bored, then I go and I make breakfast.