Noh Talent: A Raedis Short...

Rædis spoke a lot of languages. Thousands without even counting dialects and slangs. But being a machine, he could suss them all out, organize them, study them in his mind and find connections and such that made learning and mastering new tongues even easier.

     Sometimes to hear a new language and to gain specific insight he would travel to visit a certain linguist who was a sort of language savant. She certainly knew many more languages than her machine friend but would never say how many. And, even though she was an organic being, she could somehow use not only her actual vocal organs and all one needs to produce sounds to levels of extreme and precise degrees, but would also incorporate her limbs, a small musical keypad she carried and often various objects in the room for those that she couldn't.

     However, she did not posses the almost instantaneous and thorough ability to mentally organize and convey her vast knowledge into the seamless expression of thought into sound that constituted somewhat intelligible speech. This was not a problem when she was speaking one language or even slipping back and forth between several when say, in translating. She was a savant, after all, with unparalleled ability.

     The difficulties arose when she would speak in her own tongue. Not her native language but rather a wholly unique form of communication resulting from the fact that she knew so very many. When extremely comfortable and relaxed, alone, speaking to her cat, under stress or intoxicated, she would lapse into an indecipherable amalgamation of sounds and getstures that formed an unfathomably complex language that only she alone knew and could speak.

Her cat understood her, of course, but lacked the means to convey this other than purring away affectionately when sitting in her lap.

     Her true name would take even Rædis a fortnight to pronounce properly so he shortened it a bit and simply called this astounding lady 'Noh'. Which in Japanese meant 'talent' or 'skill'.