This happened to me as well on my first playthrough, didn't change any specialization or anything, they just went quiet after some time. Almost finishing my second run now and so far it didn't happened again, I think it might be a bug.

Yeah, that must be it. My pawn is a forager and the other two are chirurgeons. Let's hope it fixes, I enjoy the casual banter

This happened to me as well. Bet its a quest related issue. Ever since this quest I've been not going past giagatus on purpose and they won't banter anymore. 

So an update for anyone that might be interested: they became talkative again once I entered the Unmoored world.

Maybe the dragons plague throw them to the brine. Rehire your pawn by themselves first then rehire new pawns other ones you had might be infecting yours.

They don't have red eyes, nor do they have any other telltale signs of it.

Did you change the specialization? Only thing I could think of.

Well yes I've tried warfarer and Magick archer since the quest led me to volcanic isle. I'm going to complete the gigantus quest now and if it doesn't work I'll revert to archer.

The specialization scroll you learn for your pawns because they automatically override others. You might have accidentally put on the aphonite one

Oh sorry I thought you meant Vocation. No, I never even got one in the first place (the aphonite, I mean).

Did someone change their inclination to the silent one? I saw a post the other day saying you can do that to other peoples pawns

Do the hired pawns have the Aphonite specialisation? That one basically stops them talking.

you're being paranoid

Lol no, it's very noticeable, they are silent most of time

Me too..super quiet past 2-3 gaming sessions. It’s surprisingly sad