Language
Spoken Auterian
The language that Auterian speak and use in their day to day life is known as "Auterian". The spoken version, in their world, sounds like clicks and chirps, which is very similar to certain bird species. This language is very complex, and can carry lots of meaning; not as extensive as human language, but it can be comparable to, or even more complex than dolphins or chimpanzees' method of communication. Furthermore, spoken auterian is used as a method of carrying oral traditions, and can be used as an art form! Thus, it is a critical part of an Auteryx's life to be articulate, and a good amount of an Auteryx's younger years is spent learning not just how to survive, but to use the species' oral traditions and techniques.
Thus, through their usage of language, auteryx can definitely be considered as an intelligent species!
Written Auterian
Written Auterian is much more different than spoken Auterian in terms of depth, usage, and overall format. It is exceptionally similar to the language Toki Pona, where simplicity and general ideas are mainly used to get the point across, there is no need for poetic or nuanced written language. It is extremely practical, as it is mainly used as recording historical events and keeping track of things; spoken auterian is the language of self expression, but written auterian is a script of utiltarian nature.
Only really simple phrases can be written in Auterian, such as "Kovi is eating 2 fish", or "there is many fish today". Words that do not have specific characters are sounded out phonetically, such as names, events, or specific places. Written auterian is typically located on rocks or on pieces of bark, etched with stone tools by Auteryx. Above is a visual guide on how Auterian would be written, and the auterian alphabet is depicted below.
What is interesting about the Auterian alphabet is that there are three different versions. The first version, which is the one that you will all use, is the one where all letters of the english alphabet are present. However, this is not the true langauge of the Auteryx, as the letters F, H, L, M, V, W, Y,and Z actually do not exist in the spoken Auterian language and the representations above are merely a way for directly translating english into Auterian.
The second script is Old Auterian; old Auterian is the earliest forms of written language made by Auteryx, and only has a few symbols for sounds to write out names, and commonly-known terms such as fish, tree, sky, water, etc. This written language was mostly used either to keep records of trades, or to record extremely important events; it mainly held a purely functional purpose. However, as Auteryx evolved and gained higher cognitive functions, there was a necessity for a more complex language.
This led to the development of New Auterian, a more complex written language that added more sounds and vocabulary to the initial Old Auterian. What is very fascinating about New Auterian is that Old Auterian can still be easily distinguished within the language, with almost no evolution of Old Auterian into completely New Auterian language. The alphabet of both New and Old Auterian is a mix of logograms and alphabet based language, although in Old Auterian there is an emphasis on more symbols, while the newer counterpart focuses more on letters to create words.