Animals and language
I've been thinking about animal communications and have a few thoughts on it. What do you think?
We humans think that we are the only living beings who talk, but that's not true. Animals might not have as complex of a language as we do, but they talk vocally to each other. Sometimes they vocalize to people. And like us, they also communicate through body language.
Birds have songs that have meanings for other birds. Some can imitate human language. .
Chipmunks and squirrels chatter. Only they know what their sounds mean.
Dogs bark at each other, at other animals, and at people. Anyone who has lived with a dog recognizes their different kinds of barks and their meanings.
Adult cats usually don't meow at each other, but they do at humans. That means that they comprehend that humans communicate that way and so they try to do it, too. Siamese are just naturally talkative
I once encountered a very distressed mama duck on a city street. There was a river nearby. She had been walking with her ducklings and the little ones fell through a drain grate. Mama was squawking anxiously at every person she saw. She waa "talking" to us and we understood her anxiety. Somebody contacted the city's public works department and they sent a guy out to remove the grate and pull out the ducklings. Mama duck watched until every one was retrieved, then took them to the river. Her distress calls were understood, but the surprising thing to me was that she deliberately sought human help by "speaking" to us.
Animals learn their names, which suggests to me that they are hard wired for some degree of language comprehension. Could it be that their mother's vocalizations to them vary slightly enough between them to distinguish one from the other? Then the puppy or kitten transfers that to living with humans who use a specific sound -- their name -- to call them?
We communicate beyond species. Our pets comprehend our tone even when they don't know the words, and vice versa.