Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-11462477-20130713223417/@comment-124.176.177.92-20130831101822

the greybeards give you their knowledge of that word/s. They said at one point that to learn a shout is to take it into ones very being. That is probably why dragon souls unlock thu'ums. When you kill a dragon you absorb its knowledge. Maybe the greybeards have some method of giving another knowledge of the shouts without tearing their soul from their body.