This language has been called ‘mantiq al-tair’ and ‘lenga aucel’ and ‘the speech of birds’ and ‘Ramsund’ and ‘the hazelnut tongue’, but it’s a language of secrets, and its true name may never be used. The aviform Hours use it at their Roost, or so the story goes.
There’s a very old story told by thieves about a competition among the aviform Hours - the secret gods who take the shape of birds.
The dove boasted of the bones he’d stolen from flesh,
and the crow of the flesh he’d picked from bones.
One of the kite-twins bragged that that she’d stolen the borders from kingdoms,
and the other that she’d taken the roads from crossroads.
The magpie told all the colours he’d taken that are no longer found in the world,
and the laughingthrush topped that with the tales of the sights she’d stolen.
But when the glitter-winged seventh of their number told them what he’d stolen, they all were shocked into silence.
They fell upon him and stripped him of his wings and drove him from the sky. So he, and what he stole, are gone from the world, and now we cannot even name them, but still we feel their lack.
Can be taught by: