Types of Communication in Sapient Species

"I believe the science, or perhaps even art, of linguistics is more relevant in this age of space travel and exploration than in any age before. Indeed, this may surprise many, for the 'physical sciences' of the likes of chemistry, physics and so on have long outshone the humanities. Now, however, all galactic politics relies on us, and on our translations. There is simply no other way to conduct inter-species politics." -Fifth of Wordseekers, on the 10th anniversary of Bwojom first contact with the Jre, 86 BI

Xenolinguistics is the scientific field studying various languages and similar communication forms across species, and attempting to find ways to translate them into eachother. Xenolinguists have become an extremely valuable resource to the nations of Known Space. Their discoveries have already led to many world-shaking innovations, such as Instant Translation Technology (ITT), and they, alongside xenopsychologists and xenoanthropologists, are essential in establising first contact with any newly discovered species.

Overview

Xenolinguists differentiate two main forms of communication most known species use:
Advanced Communication is what can be considered 'true' language. It is the form of communication used to convey complex ideas and information. Advanced Communication in almost every species is a learned skill, and usually many different variants, or 'languages', exist even within one species. Advanced Communication itself is subdivided into 5 'normal' groups (Auditive, Visual, Sensual, Olfactory and Pulsating) and 1 'special' group (Connecting) based on what medium the form uses to convey its information.
Primal Communication, is simultaneously a 'simpeler' form of communication and a much more complex one. Primal Communication, in most species, primarily conveys simple emotions and some, simple ideas (most commonly things such as 'danger!' or 'I am in need of help!'). In most species, Primal Communication is largely instinctual, with only a few 'words' being learned and therefore based on culture. It usually manifests as involuntary responses to certain emotions or stimuli. Though it is worth mentioning many cultures across species see certain Primal 'words' as more or less desirable to show, and therefore learn to exhibit said 'words' in specific situations. Whilst any, neurotypical, member of a species should be able to read their own species Primal Communication easily, it is often one of the toughest challenges to tackle for xenolinguists or the members of other species. Most species have a highly complex spectrum of emotion, and an equally exhaustive way of showing said emotions. Whilst usually there will be some documentation on the way a species uses their Primal Communication, they rarely realise the full extend of this 'language' and only have research on the most obvious elements on it. They often don't really notice the most subtle bits of their communication, an just consider these universal. Other species may have to study for years, if not decades, to fully grasp an other species' Primal Communication- if they have the brain functions to be able to understand it correctly to begin with. Primal Communication largely uses the same mediums as Advanced Communication, though they rarely fully overlap. Many species use many mediums of Primal Communication at once, however, only adding to the difficulty of decoding it.
Most species have access to an Advanced form of communication, and a fully realised Primal Communication. There do exist many exceptions, however. Many species posses a so-called 'Partially Realised Primal Communication', as opposed to the Fully Realised version most other species use. These 'Partially Realised' races cannot convey certain ideas most species can through their Primal Communication and must adapt linguistically to this limitation. Most often, they can either not convey specific tones in their 'speach' (or equivalent), and can only give the basic emotion of their words. This usually ends up in it being impossible for them to ask questions or convey sarcasm (or equivalents) without resorting to grammatical constructions. An other common limitation is that many species cannot emphasise specific words in a sentence. This is usually resorted by using either inflections or some form of adjective, though it is also somewhat common to use word order to convey emphasise.
There also exist species with no Primal Communication at all, though they are rare. Instead they must rely on solely on language and grammar, and thusly tend to create incredibly complex grammar to make up for this inability.

Auditive Communication

Auditive species use sound-based languages to convey ideas. Species who use Auditive Communication as their Advanced form tend to have rather similar ways of going about language. They near-universally differentiate nouns, verbs and adjectives, have somewhat similar ways of treating grammar. In addition, most Auditive species use something called a 'sound inventory', where they only use a limited amount of the usually great amount of sounds they can produce. Of course, species who can only produce a limited amount of sounds to begin with do not do this.
Most Auditive species eventually develop scripts where the sounds they produce are written down as symbols; be it in the form of alphabets, where all sounds can get their own symbol, syllabaries, where certain syllable structures get a symbol, abjads, where only 'consonants' or their equivalents get a sign, or punjads, where 'consonant' symbols are modified to show the 'vowel' following it. Some cultures even develop 'featural' writing systems, where every sign is a 'instruction' for how to pronounce the sound. Usually one of these 'sound-based' writing systems become the dominant system of a species (or rather, one of, as most species do posses multiple important systems). There do exist languages which, for one reason or another, cannot use such systems, and instead opt for logographical systems where every symbol signifies a specific word or idea on itself. Whilst most Auditive cultures begin writing with a pictographic writing system, there exist no known spacefaring cultures which still cling on to such 'primitive' systems in their eyes.
When it comes to communicative technology, most Auditive species will either have to wait until the invention of proper telephone lines, or develop a simpeler form of communication to communicate through telegraph lines. Almost all species invent such a 'morse code' (as it is known to human cultures), however. That said, the invention of the telephone or the radio is always a gigantic discovery for these species.
The prevalence of music is also a major 'side-effect' of Auditive communication. Whilst non-Auditive species tend to have some equivalent of music still, it is only in Auditive species, whose brains are trained to hear and interpreate complex rythms within sounds already, that music becomes such a culturally important phenomenon. Auditive individuals will often listen to music in their digital devices as background noice (many Auditives dislike silence to some extend) whilst doing other tasks, or even listen to it as a past time in and of itself. Auditive cultures tend to develop a great many musical instruments to work with, often with each being assigned various 'tones' or 'emotions' of some sort. In addition, poetry is also a fairly unique Auditive concept. Other species will, of course, also use their languages for the sake of art, but only Auditive species do so by maling use of sound-based art, and grammatical functions as such.
Despite their relative simililarity in the way they approach language, it can often be hard for an Auditive individual to learn the language of an other Auditive species. This is because most Auditives use radically different sounds to communicate, often to the point that they sound like simple animals to eachother. It is possible, however; though it will usually take many years of study. In addition, it is generally impossible for individuals to actually speak the languages of other species without technological aid, as their vocal chords usually make this impossible. This has not stopped many xenolinguists from creating 'appropiations' of alien languages using the sounds their own species can produce which sound most similar to those the language actually uses. This is a common tactic even for teaching future xenolinguists an alien language, in fact.
There also exist, of course, many species who use Auditive communication as their primary form of Primal Communication. In species that also use Auditive communication as their Advanced form, this usually comes in the shape of highly complex variations of tone and emphasis within a sentence. Some species, such as the Pakoph can even speak with multiple tones in their voice at once. Other species simply insert various 'emotional sounds' in between their words, however. In species that primarily communicate through some other means than Auditive, but do use Auditive as their Primal form, this usually takes the shape of some kind of set of sounds (or even a 'song' of sorts) which communicates emotion and similar concepts. Interestingly, most species who communicate emotion in such a way share the appreciation for music most Auditive species have, though they do often have a harder time learning Auditive languages.

Visual Communication

Visual species use visual-based languages to convey ideas. They are often further differentiated into so-called 'Gestural' species (species who use various gestures and movements to convey ideas) and 'Rithmatic' species (species who use visual 'rhythms', usually in the form of colour changes or biolumensicent light flashes similar to morse code to convey ideas). Visual languages often don't make as strong seperations between various types of words (nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc) like Auditive languages, often using the various 'words' through eachother and at most maybe including some kind of gesture or colour-combination to indicate wether they're talking about the action or the actor. Gestural languages usually don't have clearly defined sets of 'movements' they use, instead using almost random and an incredinly large amount of moves. Rhithmatic species tend to use every colour, or light lenght, or whatever have you that they can, and often use it in a similar way to how Auditive species use sounds.
Visual species have something of a tendency to develop logographic writing systems, as they tend to already practically 'speak' in logographs regardless. There are major differences here between Gestural and Visual species however. Gestural species are among the only species in Known Space who still use pictographic systems at advanced technological levels, litterally drawing out the moves and gestures they make to draw out a word. Though they usually draw heavily simplified representations, for the sake of ease of use. In Visual species it often depands on what medium exactly is used to communicate. Species who use colour changes to communicate will often write using dies, simply making colourful dots to make it appear as if the writing is 'talking' to them. In addition, some colour-base languages employ an almost alphabet-like system instead, where every symbol represents a specific colour. This usually occurs if the 'speakers' of said language didn't have the resources to write using dies when their writing system was first adopted. Species who use flashes of light will often write in a similar manner to how morse-code on Earth is written down; using symbols of varying lenght to show how long the actual flash is. The rare species who both can see infrared (and with it, warmth) and communicate using warmth patterns as such will sometimes employ a system similar to the dye-based scripts of many colour-using species: 'drawing' out words using various colours representing various levels of warmth. Though, many also just use more alphabetical systems where every symbol simply represents a level of warmth.Species that communicate combining two visual methods will often combine the writing tactics of both methods. For an example, a species who communicates via a combination of moving certain organs, whilst also flashing lights of some fashion will usually draw the pictograph of the movement with a symbol represanting wether or not a light is present, and is so how long said light is, under it. Interestingly, Visual species will often tend to develop writing much earlier than most other species, as they are already used to the idea of visual cues encoding information.
When it comes to communicative technology, Visual species are in an interesting situation. They will usually have some trouble inventing telegaph-equivalents, but tend to gravitate using light flashes instead of sequences of long and short sounds in this case (especially if they already use light flashes to communicate). Radio and telephone equivalents don't have much use for them, however. As a result, they often tend to develop mechanisms where radio signals simply make a light flash at certain lenghts sooner than developing an actual way to record sound. In addition, they often develop television screens and even coloured screens significantly earlier than most other species, which will usually be used extensively by military and government operations but will initially not be used much by the public. After television screens liek this are invented, a way to simply send and receive written text is usually the next invention and the closest equivalent to a 'telephone'. Personal camera's and ways to cheaply send visual information are, as a result, also much sooner invented than in other species. All of this can also happen without sound recording being discovered, with sound recording usually being seen as a novelty initially, similar to how most Auditive species see colour television. When it comes to translation technology or even military HUDs, Visual species will often have to get used to either a lot of writing being in their way, or for some kind of small 'figure' constantly making movements in a corner of the screen to convey translations and commands. This is rarely seen as an issue by them, however, as Visual species are usually more adept in filtering out visual information anyways.
Similarly to how poetry and music is often extremely significant to Auditive species, Visual species care greatly for paintings, statues or even moving machines. Gestural species will often develop highly complicated 'dance' routines (for lack of a better word) which can be equated to singing, whereas Rhitmatics tend to care more for artistic installations creatively using shape and colour. A concept which can be equated to the magicians of many species is also common in many Visual species, where one or multiple individuals simply seek to deceive or impress using all kinds of visual tricks including fireworks, colourful smoke and spotlights. Fireworks, too, are usually invented earlier in visual species, indirectly leading to them also often inventing guns, cannons and rocketry earlier than non-Visual species.
Visual species often have an extremely easy time learning other scripts, and even the languages of other Visual species (assuming they can see the exact colours, heat frequences, etc... an other species uses to communicate), as their brains are already highly trained in understanding visual ques. As every sapient with the capability to become a technologically advanced species is already great at understanding visual ques and making gestalts, it is also often relatively easy for non-Visual species to learn Visual languages, sometimes even compared to language of their own type. Because of this, Visual languages are often among the more popular to learn among xenolinguistic students, even if it is usually impossible for any one who lacks the nescesary organs to speak it.
There are also many species who use Visual communication as their form of Primal Communication. This is usually done by colour change, though species making gestures of some sort to communicate emotion are also not unheard of. These species tend to greatly associate certain colours, moves, gestures and so forth with certain emotions or asic ideas, leading to them often developing highlThy complex social norms. For an example, species who use colour to communicate emotion will only have very strict and complex rules for fashion, in particular what colour of clothes or what colour combinations to wear in various situations. Other species not understandign these types of rules have led to many diplomatic incidents, where the very attire of a diplomat or the way they moved was insulting to the diplomats of the species in question, in the past. Body language is also an incredibly common way to encode emotion, though one which usually doesn't come with as strong social implications as other forms of Primal Visual communication. Some species have even evolved dedicated organs or muscles to communicate emotion in this manner (humans with their facial expressions, for one example). Finally, it may be worthwhile to point out that there are no known Gestural species who do not have any form of Primal communication, as the way they make their gestures almost always encodes emotion.

Sensual Communication

Sensual species use touch to communicate ideas.This usually involves them getting extremely close to one and other, and pressing at least two body parts together, usually some kind of tentacles or similar. Communication is usually done through either doing specific movements, or applying varying types of pressure to eachother or a combination of both. Other forms of Sensual communication also exist, such as forms of communications where one needs to touch specific parts of the body to relay information or where every member of the species has a 'set' of 'communicatory appendages' each with different surfaces and communication is performed by switching what surface is used. These, however, are somewhat rarer than the the first two. Sensual species tend to also not really distinguish various types of words from eachother in their grammar, but often do so to a greater extend than Visual species. Sensual communication is seen as one of the two 'Uncommon' types of communication, as opposed to the 'Common' types of Visual and Auditive. That said, Sensual species are somewhat rare but far from unheard of. One benefit of Sensual Communication is that any message can be conveyed extremely accurately and with much detail, due to the sheer amount of gestures and pressures one can put in such languages as a form of nuance. Sensual languages tend to have extremely large 'vocabularies' because of this.
Purely Sensual species are extraordinarly rare. Due to the fact that Sensual communication is, by defenition, impossible to be used over long distances, many develop some kind of secondary system of Advanced Communication to use over longer distances. These systems can usually of a medium, being capable of communicating some advanced ideas, but not anywhere close to the same extend as a true language. This is a situation that often causes misunderstandings between even two members of the same species, which is even worse for xeno learners of the language. The secondary languages of Sensual species are most often Gestural in nature, though Rithmatic and even Auditive communication are also not unheard of.
Sensual species tend to develop logographic scripts. 'Alphabetical' systems where every symbol represents a certain motion (often with diacritics to show aproximately how much pressure or force to use, if the species uses that for communication) or touch point are also not unheard of. Interestingly, Sensual species have a tendency to develop their writing systems as things which are moreso 'felt' than read. Early on in history this usually done by carving things into surfaces, and then feeling out the carvings. Later on braille and similar can be used. Also somewhat common are writing systems which purely utilise touch and feeling, often involving rope or similar inventons and knots made in them .This is rather similar to the Incan concept of Quipu on Earth, proving that such systems can also arise in Auditive species.
In terms of communicative technology, Sensual species are often in a tough shape. Advanced robotics are often needed to accurately relay the motions Sensual species use to communicate. This is usually expensive and somewhat inpractical even for spacefaring species, let alone industrial, atomic or information age civilisiations. Because of this, Sensual species most usually relie on their secondary form of Advanced Communication for such technologies, or on their writing system (should they have one that can be 'read'). Often, Sensual species are forced to develop new writing systems or to further develop their secondary form of communication in order to make long-distance communication technology possible. This usually involves a somewhat complex system of many overlapping subtitles alongside clues given in their secondary form of communication to form coherent messages. In spite of this, Sensual species must still often relie purely on the written translations in order to understand other species, or to use AR technology. Sensual species tend to, similarly to Visual species, develop television screens relatively early because of this.
Sensual species also often develop a fondness for massages and similar experiences, sometimes even seeing it as an artform similar to poetry for other species. 'Massage artists' ussually work by writing detailed instructions of their art in some manual, which is then either programmed into an android or learned by experts in massage centers. Due to the limitations Sensual species face in long-distance communication, theatre plays are often non-existant in Sensual cultures. If they do exist, they tend to be less prominent and work radically differently. Instead of relying on actors actually saying all the words, they tend to be more similar to interpratitive dance shows of other species, though often with 'playbooks' containing all the dialogue. Sometimes the secondary form of communication is also used to let the audience have a better clue of the emotions at play. Untill Sensual species develop a proper television-equivalents, however, books tend to be their main form of entertainment and artistic expression. Though, they also very often develop a caste of story-tellers who tell short, evocative stories individual to individual. This often develops into a ritual similar to games of 'chinese whispers' on Earth. One individual tells someone one element of a story, who then tells this element to the person next to them and so on. There is usually a 'director' of sorts in these rituals, who attempts to ensure that the story goes in a desired way by using music, helpers who can correct or introduce new elements, or other atmospheric cues.
Sensual species often have a rather easy time learning the languages of other Sensual species, as they often use the same types of limbs and methods to communicate. That said, they usually have extreme difficulty learning other methods of communication beyond, at best, Visual communication however. It is usually easier for a Sensual species to learn a language using the method of their secondary form of communication, however.
There are relatively few species using Sensual Communication as their form of Primal Communication, unless they also use Sensual as their Advanced form of communication of course. This is because it is usually more useful to be able to communicate one's emotions to the entire group, and especially to be able to make sure that basic concepts like 'danger' can be 'heard' by everyone. There are some species who use Sensual Communication as a part of their Primal Communication, as a way to very accurately convey emotions when it is particularly important. This usually also leads to massages being seen as an artform, but they're usually accompanied by poetry readings, music, or similar for such species. Other species often find it rather hard to learn Sensual languages, due to the incredible nuance they display. On top of this, few non-Sensual species have the right body plan or accurate sense of touch to even differentiate all the different sensations that are involved in Sensual communication.

Pulsating Communication

Pulsating species, similarly to Sensual species, primarily use 'touch' (or a similar sense) for communication. The main difference of Pulsating species is that they don't use physical touch, but instead use various forms of energy to communicate. THe most common form of Pulsating communication is in the form of vibrations in the ground, often caused by stamping or knocking on it in some manner. An other, more peculiar form of Pulsating communication is using electricity. This is, however, only really common in aquatic species (and even then, it requires both an extreme tolerance to electricity and the ability to produce it) making it rather rare in spacefaring species. Other methods of Pulsating communication include but are not limited to: aquatic vibrations (as observed within the Toshra, though for them accompanied by a secondary Auditive language), and wind (extraordinarily rare, only observed with one species in the entirety of Known Space). In general, the equivalent of 'sounds' Pulsating species make are referred to as 'pulses'. Pulsating communication tends to be based mostly on the intensity of any 'blast' they receive, such as how much electricity an individual receives from an other individual trying to communicate. Pulsating Communication is considered an 'Uncommon' type of communication, similarly to Sensual communication. It is the second rarest type in Known Space.
Pulsating species tend to develop logographies. 'Phonetic' systems where every characters shows how long and powerful a specific pulse is supposed to be are also not unheard of.
For communicative technologies Pulsating species are in an extremely interesting position. Pulsating speices who use electricity to communicate in particular, as they essentially have a fully functioning telephone the moment a telegraph-equivalent is invented. Other species are less fortunate, and most develop both a way to artificially make their type of pulse (for an example, a 'tremor-machine' for a species using vibrations in the earth) and a way for that machine to interpret electrical signals into the right type of pulse. Truly mobile communicative technology, beyond technology utilising writing of course, is often impossibly or highly expansive for Pulsating species. A species utilising electricty, for an example, essentially needs a portable achine capable of making charges powerful enough for them to notice. Some are somewhat more fortunate, like species using aquatic vibrations who can somewhat easily develop a device of the right nature to use whilst within water. In general however, Pulsating species must mostly rely on text for their equivalents ot mobile phones and AR technology. An other interesting side-note is the Pulsating equivalent of a microphone. For most Pulsating species the earliest 'microphones' consisted of people repeating after them, and after that technology that worked fairly analogously to Auditive microphones but using pulses instead. For electrical Pulsating species, however, lines of conductive metals are often used to carry their messages further. This also leads to telegraphs being developed unusually early for such species, in addition to industrial electricity as a whole.
Pulsating species (other than ones who use electricity) tend to greatly enjoy dances of various kinds, as every step oftne produces a pulse. A set of steps can then produce coherent messages to them. This is, in many ways, quite similar to how many Gestural species develop interpretative dance artforms. Instead of the focus on music many Auditive species develop, Pulsating species often develop a 'equivalent' to music where harmonious pulses (sometimes with poetic meaning) are considered beautiful. These are sometimes performed by what could be considered 'singers', or displayed by devices similar to how communication and things like television can occur. This is not to say that Pulsating species as a rule don't develop music however. A great many species, regardless of their type of communication, develop music, but only Auditive speices put any great emphasis on it.
Pulsating species will often have a fairly easy time learning the languages of other Pulsating species using the same type of pulse as they do. As there are only a fairly limited amount of pulses common in Known Space, this usually means that Pulsating species have the relatively unique privilige of not only being able to learn and understand an alien language, but to actually speak to some extend (though often with a heavy 'accent', for lack of a better term). It is, however, usually significantly harder for non-Pulsating species to learn to understand Pulsating languages, with it usually being impossible to do without the help of modern technology to 'translate' pulses into more recognisable symbols.
Pulsating communication is more often used as a Primal form of communication than an Advanced one. This is rather rare for electricty-based Pulsating communication, however, but is somewhat common for tremor and aquatic pulse based communication. It is rare for Pulsating communication to be the only or primary Primal form of communication, however. It usually involves various strenghts of pulses translating to various emotional states, or to the intensity of emotional states. Species who use this form of Primal communication tend to have a somewhat easier time learning to understand Pulsating languages of the same pulse-type, as they can actually pick the pulses up without technological equipment. It is still difficult for them, however, as it is often somewhat hard for them to see pulses as words instead of emotions. Species with a Pulsating Primal form of communication tend to also enjoy dance shows similar to Advanced Pulsating species. Also of interest is the fact that such species rarely develop a way for their pulses to be included in any communicative technology. Because of this, it is common for them to develop 'speech regiments' more clearly showing emotion when performing their equivalent of a phone talk, and for them to develop various alternative ways (such as coloured subtitles) to show the emotions of characters in the equivalents of tv programs or video games. Also of importance is the fact that most species who use Pulsating communication as their Primal Communication tend to be Auditive or Connecting, as the other types already use their bodies too much for main communication to also factor pulses in.

Olfactory Communication

Olfactory communciation uses taste and scent to communicate various ideas. This usually happens by means of pheromones. So far, no species using Olfactory communicated as their Advanced form has been encountered within Known Space. It is believed this is because of 3 main reasons. Firstly, producing the various scents or tastes nescessary to produce coherent sentences in any consicise manner takes great amounts of energy, therefore being selected against in evolution. Secondly, any gust of wind can make it impossible to communicate, therefore making the evolution of Olfactory species require a planet with little to no wind. Thirdly and finally, if any other individuals were to 'speaking' near an Olfactory species, the variosu scents would combine and mingle and therefore become unintelligible to all parties. This last issue is also an issue for many other types of communication (Auditive and Pulsating in particular), though it is thought to be easier for those species to simply 'single out' specific sounds or pulses and therefore communicate. That all said, Olfactory communication is somewhat common as a Primal form of communication.
Olfactory Primal Communication tends to be accomplished by releasing certain pheromones tied to certain emotions at the right time. Sometimes the strenght of said pheromones also shows the strength of the emotion, though this is also often shown through non-Olfactory means. Species who use this type of Primal Communication tend to either have a distaste or a great liking for cuisine, as they associate many tastes and smells with certain emotions. Cooking can often take on an almost poetic nature to them. Similarly, incense, scent candles and similar are often utilised by these species in a similar way to poetry. It is also not uncommon for them to develop a device which can excrete their main emotional pheromones at any type, for the sake of television and video gaming.

Connecting Communication

Connecting Communication is unusual in many ways. It is considered the only 'Special' form of communication, as it functions in ways entirely unlike any of the other types of communications. Instead of producing various repeating patterns in some way which are given a certain meaning which is then communicated, Connecting communication directly trades ideas. Whereas other forms of communication have various things representing ideas, Connecting simply uses said ideas. This is most usually done by directly connecting to the neural system (or equivalent) of a conversational partner (as observed in the Xir-Mixit), making it somewhat rare. This allows one to essentially think to their recipients. It is to be noted, however, that all forms of Connecting communication observed so far require some degree of close contact, making it so that most Connecting species also have a secondary Advanced language similar to Sensual species.
An other interest sidenote is that Connecting communication as a biological trait is highly associated with hypercolonial organisms, more colloquially known as 'hiveminds'. Because these species usually develop out of many organisms communicating and coordinating with eachother to such an extend that they essentially become a single organism, what could be considered a 'protolanguage' of sorts essentially became their method of rendering true sapient thought. As such, it is extremely easy for two colonies of this species to simply come together or send some of their drones to communicate in a similar way to how non-hiveminded species would do it, but actually using a Connecting form of communication rather than any other form. Take for an example the so-called Swarmers, a species of eusocial flying arachnoids who originally evolved a combination flashing bioluminescent lights and pheromones to coordinate better. Over time, this coordination became so important to their 'way of life' that more and more of them became to permanently act together. Their method of communication became so developed that an individual Swarmer drone effectively became analogous to a neuron and the whole swarm to an individual. What would appear to an other species as flashing lights and pheromoens is therefore their equivalent of thinking. Just as they can do that with their own drones, they can simply directly 'think together' with an other Swarm.
Connecting species universally develop logographic writing systems, as they can only think of ideas as such.In terms of communicative technology, Connecting species are usually initially forced to only be able to use solely their writing systems for long-distance communication. An exception of this exists in hypercolonial species using some particular methods of 'thought', such as ones who use electricity or light flashes. Such species are often capable of what is essentially cybernetic telepathy fairly early on in their technological development, inmediately tying their peoples together to the extreme. Other Connecting species can sometimes develop artificial ways to 'connect' with others of their species much later on.
Connecting communication has many effects on a species' culture. Most dramatic of these is likely the relative pacifism and cooperativeness it tends to inspire. Due to the fact that everyone can perfectly understand everyone else's point of view and feel their emotions, war and discrimination become relatively rarer. That is not to say that either don't exist, they are simply rarer. World-governments or alliances uniting the whole (or the vast majority) of their kind are incredibly common, even fairly early on, in Connecting species.
An other important side-effect is the effect on learning; Connecting species tend to have much shorter academic careers and tend to develop quicker scientifically due to the fact that any piece of knowledge can essentially instantly be transmitted. However, that is not to say that Connectign species don't need to study, or automatically understand everything they are told. They simply perfectly understand any explanation given to them as their teacher intended. If a teacher is inadequate at explaining something to a particular student, that student will still not understand. SImilarly, Connecting species usually still need to memorise information; it is not instantly added to their mind.
Sharing intimidate memories tends to be extremely important to Connecting species, and is usually a sign of extreme trust and love, be it platonic or romantic in nature. Storytelling is often both more and less important to Connectign species. Unlike with other species, the actual way the story is told is of little interest to them, as thoughts remain thoughts always. Instead, Connecting species often develop a class of highly talented storytellers who try to constantly create new tales and attempt to tell them primarily by using physical attributes and mental imagery directly brought over to an audience's mind. Connecting species tend to have rather abstract tastes in their art, as they can already easily create and trade realistic images with eachother. This is especially apparent in most video material they produce that is not documentary in nature or related to real life events. As it is often impossible for them to 'record' themselves, and their stories already mostly consist of mental imagery being communicated, television shows tend to simply focus on making beautiful, thought-provoking, disturbing or interesting imagery and nothing else. Many exceptions do, of course, exist.
The equivalent of Connecting 'poetry' tends to consist mostly of various logographs attempting to describe an emotion, mental image or idea through a rapid summation of qualities. Whilst this style of poetic description exists in many non-Connecting species as well, it is especially common in Connecting species and is therefore worth mentioning.
Connecting species usually have no form of Primal Communication, as Connecting communication, by defenition, serves as both Advanced and Primal. The only other form of communication many Connecting species develop is a secondary, less-advanced form of communication used for longer-distance conversations. Connecting species tend to have an incredibly hard time learning the languages of other species because of this, even compared to the effort already needed by other species to learn alien languages. It is often impossible to even build a machine that can translate Connecting species directly, making it so that that both parties must mostly rely on their writing systems (and translations thereoff- to communicate.
In addition, Connecting species have no concept of Primal Communication. This, combined with the facts that many Connecting cultures value honesty greatly and consider not sharing at least basic thoughts to be highly suspicious or rude, and the fact that they often have an incredibly hard time understanding even the translations of other species causes their relations with other civilisations to often be strained. Some Connecting cultures are fascinated by other species and their forms of conversation, and will try to ally and befriend them at great cost. Most, however, distrust other species. Often to the point of xenophobie, isolationism or even supremacism. Because of all of this, Connecting species are often classified as a Type 2 intelligence simply due to their form of communication.