Intermediary

Also known as Vanir-Human Intermediary, Intermediary is a language developed in collaboration with Vanir and Human linguists, to develop a language that is pronounceable to both Humans and Vanir, as well as possibly other aliens. While successful in this goal in that it is possible for both species to vocalize in the language, this quality has been achieved by sacrificing almost everything else. Intermediary is universally agreed to sound awful, to be painful to speak (at least until the speaker is acclimated to it) and to be very long-winded to account for the very limited phonemes available.

Despite this, the language is moderately popular among those that expect to interact with aliens, since there simply isn't another way to directly speak to an alien. No books or plays or shows are written or spoken in Intermediary, though it is occasionally used for effect. Some technical instructions are written in the language, but even then they tend to be quickly translated to the language of the user.

Phonetics

The overlap between possible human sounds and possible Vanir sounds is limited. Consequently, the language makes use of throat sounds and clicks, even though these are challenging for most humans to produce. The language sounds somewhat different when spoken by a human and when spoken by a Vanir, though the sounds still fall within a general range, like mutually intelligible dialects. Certain sounds also require the speaker to tap their knuckles together.