Metaphonics (Perception) No default
This skill represents as thorough an understanding of the linguistic underpinnings of Angelic as is possible for a mortal on the corporeal plane. It may not be learned at a level higher than the mortal's Intelligence. Knowledge of this skill allows a mortal to purchase Angelic/1, which may not be improved further. A successful skill roll will permit a +2 to all attempts to read Angelic by a mortal who knows the language.
The thing about Angelic is not that it's hard to learn. It's really not all that difficult for humans to do so, honestly. There are forty basic phonemes, each with three tonemes based on high, neutral, or low pitch. This sounds like a lot, pardon the pun, but the distinctive nature of each note is actually easy for even human ears to catch and remember. Angelic is fully "phonetic;" there are no variant spellings, as well as no linguistic puns, homophones, homonyms, or loan words. The verb tenses may be maddeningly complex for anyone who isn't a native speaker of Navaho, but a bare-bones "the farmer is good" sort of statement should be theoretically possible of human speakers of Angelic.
The problem here is that it just takes too long for human larynxes to speak the language. The average Angelic phoneme has a duration of about 5 nanoseconds. That means that, for example, the Angelic word for 'cow' has two hundred million phonemes in it, which is just enough information to thoroughly define the cow down to the Planck Limit, distinguish the cow from every other cow in the universe, lock in the cow's precise position in space-time, and indicate all the relationships that this cow has with, well, everything else. This information all comes from the Symphony, and is gathered unconsciously (and uncontrollably) by the angel; attempting to circumvent the data stream by incorrectly transmitting its information creates a vicious feedback loop that is more commonly known as "dissonance." That's why angels don't understand Helltongue, by the way: demons deliberately shut down any and all connections to the Symphony that might force their behavior, no matter how innocuous. This includes their language, which is pathetically simple by angelic standards, but retains enough of its past relationship that the mere act of speaking it by an angel sets up the same vicious feedback loop.
So, when humans set out to learn Angelic, they quickly discovered that while they could reproduce the sounds, living humans couldn't hope to pack in enough phonemes to let angelic ears even hear the words, let alone recognize them. Putting in mere nonsense phonemes didn't work, either: it came across as the celestial equivalent of "bar-bar-bar." The knowledge of just how to draw out the phonemes sufficiently to let them register in an angelic ear, while giving enough variation so that individual words may be heard, is sufficiently complex as to rate its own skill.
Please note that no living human that has learned to speak Angelic through Metaphonics is going to be able to transmit more than the most basic information with it, and that the wonderful, beautiful language that they're using sounds downright vile and unlovely on human tongues. Many angels will react badly to their first encounter with a living human Angelic-speaker, although fortunately both Seraphim and Malakim will be able to determine fairly easily that no insult was intended. The rest will grin and bear it. Please also note that Metaphonics gives no bonus to learn Helltongue, which is a language easily understood with the Knowledge (Linguistics) skill.
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