This is how I began:

“Of the various species the human race has encountered throughout the galaxy, all have viewed language as a single, uni-dimensional entity.” As I said this, the overseer displayed a black, horizontal line on a field of white.

“There is no height to language, except what we artificially impose on it to make it fit on a page, no depth — just the linear progression.” To demonstrate, the overseer superimposed words in various languages onto the line as I spoke. “Several days ago, this changed. We discovered the first species that communicates in three dimensions.”

The screen flooded with symbols, layering on and over each other in a cacophony of visual chaos. There was no order to it. It was exactly the way it looked to the average human being.

And then suddenly it snapped into place — the way it looked to a cartographer, to me. The image rotated slowly on three axes, clearly displaying the 3-dimensional nature of this new language. A murmur of conversation rippled through the hall.