#maybe shadow did know hylian simply because link does and thats a way easier explanation but like

[lunavagans]

I‘m one of the people that assumes Shadow didn‘t automatically gain Link‘s memories and skills upon his creation. This sometimes presents me with a dilemma like: When did he learn how to speak and understand hylian? Did Ganon teach him, since Vaati wasn‘t freed until Zelda‘s kidnapping? If so, then that‘s just another hint towards the interpretation of them as father and son. If he didn‘t because he might not care to, then how did Shadow learn?

We know that through the mirror, other places can be watched. As such, picture this: Shadow watching Link inside the mirror and trying to imitate the sounds he hears, because he knows they have meaning, but unlike his original, he doesn‘t know how to make use of it. It‘s yet another flaw in him, to be incapable of something so fundamental as language. So, as a being not requiring sleep or food, he simply sits in front of that piece of glass day in, day out,and makes carefully crafted but ultimately incorrect sounds, trying to catch up in a race Link doesn‘t even know of.

And it just gets sadder the later you think Shadow was created, like if he‘s existed for a few years by the time the manga takes place, then I‘d think it‘s as familiar to him as it is to anybody. But if he‘s younger than that, then just how might he feel if he has to meet that picture-perfect heroic counterpart of his and he himself barely knows how to speak? (Obviously, he does, but canon divergence territory ig.)