Questions for Rewrite

One thing that bothered me in the Little Mermaid Movie was that I always felt like that Ariel could have tried to communicate with the prince more in telling him her situation? Or to go in depth on why she couldn't. Why doesn't she write it down? If she can't why not? Do mermaids not write, or do they have an entire different language? Does she try to do charades until he figures it out? Or maybe it's in the contract that he's not allowed to know about anything?

Speaking of language, do mermaids speak English or have another language. And if they have another language how does Ariel know English, or does she not know English and kind of just wanders about taking her best guess at what people are saying? And maybe she learned English after watching the sailors all the time and she just doesnt know how to write it so she has no way to communicate?

I usually just ignore all of this for the sake of the movie to enjoy it but I'd really love to see the language barrier (or lack there of) addressed in your rewrite!

And I'm sorry this is more of a ramble than structured questions, and it's also been a while since I've seen the movie but I hope this helps or gives you some ideas!