Once human beings moved from communicating in silence and only through unsegmented vocal expressions, such as uh uh, ooh-ooh, to creating the first few words, language gradually acquired a system.
By the time this system arrived at its zenith, language had extremely elaborate and complex rules. And that, you see, is precisely the difficulty in learning an ancient language.
If only she'd made a map of the route her tears used to
take.
If only she'd used a needle to engrave pinpricks, or even just traces of blood, over the route where the words used to flow. But, she mutters, from a place deeper than tongue and throat, that was too terrible a route.