Of course there are animals that talk.
Knowing my luck, these two champion Indian
hill mynas
will now from this moment on be as silent
as the grave.
But there we are.
Polly put the kettle on.
Bird: Polly put the kettle on.
[LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE]
I'm not going to improve on that.
I don't think I have a chance...
- Yeah.
I beg your pardon.
[SIR DAVID WHISTLES]
[SIR DAVID WOLF WHISTLES]
[BIRD WOLF WHISTLES]
[LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE]
There are as you know a number
of birds clearly that can talk.
[BIRD NOISE]
I beg your pardon?
What?
But actually you see, she doesn't actually
know Polly
and she doesn't even care whether the kettle
is put on or not.
She is not actually speaking.
What she, he is doing, is simply
imitating a call in the same way
as we might imitate a blackbird's call.
He is simply singing our call with
no knowledge of what the meaning is.
And of course it's true to say that there
are talking birds
but they aren't using language obviously
in the way in which we are using language.
And one would, I mean what one can say clearly,
is that they actually have the apparatus.
They have the equipment in their throats
to speak most of the sounds that we make and
a lot more besides.
But they don't presumably have in the brain
the sort of mechanisms that are required to
speak.
