Heterogenia Linguistico - Vol. 5 Ch. 44 - Learn or Die

[reu]

Sometimes, the fish wins.

funny how there's a folk joke just like that in Portugal
Guess it's an obvious joke to make anywhere theres bullfighting

 

[Beregorn]

I'm not very convinced of this explanation: 3D bubbles CAN'T be the form of communication they use between themselves and it's a very poor attempt to communicate with other creatures. If you think about it, 3D bubbles is a very inefficient form of communication: they require the presence of clear, still water and the effective range is almost zero (albeit having 4 pair of eyes may help in discerning the 3D structure). If you add the fact they MUST have another form of communication between the four fishes, the whole thing looks quite implausible.
This would also be a poor attempt at communicating with creatures outside water: the most obvious choice would be tracing patterns on the surface

 

[comeonnow0]

I'm not very convinced of this explanation: 3D bubbles CAN'T be the form of communication they use between themselves and it's a very poor attempt to communicate with other creatures. If you think about it, 3D bubbles is a very inefficient form of communication: they require the presence of clear, still water and the effective range is almost zero (albeit having 4 pair of eyes may help in discerning the 3D structure). If you add the fact they MUST have another form of communication between the four fishes, the whole thing looks quite implausible.
This would also be a poor attempt at communicating with creatures outside water: the most obvious choice would be tracing patterns on the surface

I completely get what you're getting at, but you also have to think about the other side. Even if we accept everything you said and concluded that it's an inefficient form of communication, it might be an acceptable form of communication for certain, specific ideas.

Like, this is something I've thought about when looking at two dogs hanging out with each other. They're not very vocal, only sometimes making sounds. They can communicate through other methods (smell, touch, etc.), but they do still make some sounds. And that's probably sufficient for whatever communication/messages they need to send via sound. You don't need the sounds to be complex if you don't need to transmit complex ideas via sound (if you can transmit more complex messages by other ways).

So depending on what they're trying to "say"/communicate, it might be enough.

 

[eviljackspicer]

I felt using the word "character" would cause confusion, most people don't associate that word with orthography

Side question. Where are these characters headed to again?

 

[Deathhappens]

"Using both letters to represent words (kana) and letters to inflict pain (kanji)"

All too real, ROFL.