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emptymalei merged 1 commit into from
Oct 12, 2026
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Docs: the lexicon grows over the exchange #8

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Expand Up @@ -45,4 +45,4 @@ Every command is in the [command reference](cli.md). The rules it follows are in

## In the story

The grid script is our way of representing their language, not their language itself. As far as anyone can tell, they speak by resonance, in air: one voice alone makes only a few tones, and voices together make richer ones. The grid is how the translating machine writes that speech down, one band per voice. Nobody has seen them use any script, and nobody knows what they look like. `glyph` is that machine's lexicon, made real: a growing list of signs, each with a meaning, that every new transmission is read against.
The grid script is our way of representing their language, not their language itself. As far as anyone can tell, they speak by resonance, in air: one voice alone makes only a few tones, and voices together make richer ones. The grid is how the translating machine writes that speech down, one band per voice. Nobody has seen them use any script, and nobody knows what they look like. `glyph` is that machine's lexicon, made real: a growing list of signs, each with a meaning, that every new transmission is read against. The first signal was only a handshake, so the lexicon starts as a first draft and grows over the back-and-forth of the exchange, one round trip of 22 years at a time.
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