@kokirii replied to your post:
Yes!! And this can explain why Zant would understand the Hyrulean language himself because he recieved a fraction of Ganondorf’s power/spirit almost similar to what happened with Midna and Zelda. You can’t converse with Twili beyond the two who recieved blessings from two light dwelling Triforce wielders. That shared power can also explain why they’re able to traverse the world outside of Twilight without harm (Midna could only hide in shadows before the exchange).
Being of noble and/or royal background also grants the privilege of learning the “old language” of their ancestors. Perhaps Hyrulean language has evolved since their banishment but the root language is still familiar - kind of like with Latin based languages.
Interestingly enough, the miscellaneous Twili we see in the Twilight Realm actually have voice lines in the game’s original code; it makes you wonder why they were cut to begin with. There are actually quite a few of them, too, my personal favorite being “We will protect the palace until the day that the princess returns!” (you can check out the rest of them here), but the larger implication seems to be that, somehow or another, they’re all able to communicate in what is (basically) the same language. Which is crazy, considering how quickly Hylian has been shown to evolve over time (see: the next reply). It’s all madness, I tell you!
Also, yeah, my headcanon has always been that Zant is able to withstand the light of Hyrule just fine because of his connection with Ganondorf, and that the same happens with Midna after Zelda sacrifices herself to save her. How Midna is able to then retain that ability after their connection is severed is...another matter altogether, and a subject for another time.
@gaybellatrix replied to your post:
looking at wind waker, the hylian language evolves extremely quickly, where link is completely unable to recognize the language from just 100 years ago. granted, that was with the population spread out over the great sea, but I think it would imply that the twili would have no knowledge of modern hylian and that modern hylians would have no knowledge of ancient hylian
for convenience I use the hylian language like the common tongue in dnd, but this is a really interesting idea. and mute link is of course right and good, but it would make a lot more sense and be a lot more interesting if they had just been completely unable to communicate until after lakebed
Yeah, ultimately, when you boil the game down to its bare parts, the reason the Twili and the Hyruleans are able to communicate is...for convenience’s sake, because making a realistic game in which the two worlds’ languages have so vastly changed over the years to the point where they are no longer able to communicate would simply be too complex. If/when I get around to writing a story centered around the Twili, I’ll probably take that same route, but that’s partly why I love the middle ground of Midna knowing their spoken language, but not their sign language so much - it makes things interesting without making the whole thing a realistic-but-unintelligible mess. (Also, it could be the setup for some serious hilarity.) Man, language is complicated, huh?
