I don ' t believe anybody would lose their ability to speak if they were living with 5 other people and a dragon that teaches them in menmer language . If it was one dude alone there , sure , but 45 not really believable . After all they still think , and as far as I remember we use words and language for that . I doubt they shout more than talk . In fact they probably rarely shout . Most of what they do is probably study the words and pray to kynareth . The initiation is a good point , but again I find it incredibly inconsistent . When they talk all things shake , but when other people talk in the dragon language nothing happens . When you randomly talk to the greybeards they say Dovahkiin . Anyway we can ' t know for sure , because of conflicting information . We could say that some words hold power , others don ' t . That ' s why in the initiation only certain parts of it make things shake . Borri , an elderly priest , is one of the reclusive Greybeards in High Hrothgar who refuses to speak , lest a mere whisper of their voice unleashes destruction .