Talking animal
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The talking animal or speaking animal term, in general, refers to any form of animal which can speak human languages. This can by itself be interpreted in several manners, as listed in the below sections.
Imitation of speech
The term may have a nearly literal meaning, by referring to animals which can imitate human speech, though not necessarily possessing an understanding of what they may be mimicking. The most common example of this would be the parrot, which can learn to speak either through exposure or human training. The myna bird is another well-known mimic.
Research done by Dr. Irene Pepperberg strongly suggests that parrots are capable of speaking in context and with intentional meaning. Pepperberg's star pupil, Alex the African Grey Parrot, is even learning how to assemble words out of letters--in other words, to read and spell.
While most mimicry is done by birds, there is one documented example of a harbor seal, Hoover, that would repeat common phrases he heard around his exhibit at the New England Aquarium, including his name.
An animal language
To take this literally, this would refer to certain species or groups of animals which have a pronounced way of vocal communication, hence having the ability to conduct speech between its members with an understanding of what they are communicating. Although such a prospect may seem unlikely to many, certain more intelligent animals, such as the dolphin and the ape, have shown to make sounds at each other with a marked repetition in vocal patterns, which strongly suggests that they are indeed communicating with each other using their own language. This is widely discussed and investigated.
Some researchers use American Sign Language to try to communicate with animals that have difficulty with speech, such as Koko the gorilla. As with vocal speech, however, some skeptics consider the results to be another form of mimickry and not true communication.
Fiction
Talking animals are a common theme in fiction, especially in mythology and folk tales. Fictional talking animals often are anthropomorphic, possessing human-like qualities but appearing as an animal. The usage of talking animals enable storytellers to combine the basic characteristics of the animal with human behaviour: for example in the Three Little Pigs, the supposed animal rapacity of the wolf is shown through its repeated tricking of the three pigs. Other examples include Little Red Riding Hood and the Bremen Town Musicians.
The storyteller may use talking animals for various reasons. It could be intended for a younger audience (such as Richard Scarry's illustrated books), or as a metaphor to show the personality of certain men or groups (Art Spiegelman's Maus depicts Jews as mice, the Germans as cats and the Poles as pigs, among others). There may also be other reasons, such as for the sake of satire in Animal Farm, or artistic purposes.
Fictional talking animals may be roughly classified into the following categories, depending on the degree how talk influences their behavior. Of course, many cases may be something in between; the classification below is only a frame of reference.
Talking animals which are still animals
The animal retains its original form without much change, other than being able to speak. It may only speak as a narration for the reader's convenience. An example is the donkey of Balaam in the Book of Numbers. The characters of the webcomic Faux Pas are another example of talking animals. The rabbits in Watership Down who behave exactly as normal rabbits, except for the ability to discuss their actions, also come under this category.
Animals interacting with men
A good number of old literature involves animals which come to speak with humans, such as in Aesop's Fables and several mythologies, including Greek and Chinese.
Numerous modern science fiction and fantasy stories intermix human and animal characters. In C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, the world of Narnia is ruled by a talking lion by the name of Aslan, and many small characters are talking woodland animals, both of which who interact with both the humans riddled around Narnia, and the children who act as the protagonists of the books. In one of the worlds depicted in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials novels, each human character is accompanied by a daemon in the form of a talking animal, and the race of armored talking bears plays a major part in the stories.
Animals that portray humans
Most people in the industries of professional illustration, cartooning, and animation refer to these types of animal characters as talking animals or funny animals. However, members of furry fandom sometimes refer to this variety of talking animals as furries.Simulated humans
There are numerous series of children's books, such as the Berenstain Bears series, where the characters are written and drawn as animals in order to attract a younger audience. In this scenario the stories may be told with the characters changed to normal humans, and quite possibly the plot will suffer no major alteration. Most of such characters act no different as compared to humans. A good example of this would be Mr. Toad in The Wind in the Willows, who lives in Toad Hall, and drives a motor car. Other characters in The Wind in the Willows are closer to humanised animals, living in burrows, etc.
Exaggerated humans
In many fables, each particular animal typically represents a certain human trait, traditionally associated with it. For example, in Western folktales, a fox is supposed to be cunning, a hare is supposed to be a coward (whenever it is brave or smart, this is only with the goal to create a paradox with respect to the common expectation). In these tales, the names of the animals are simply their capitalized names of species: Mr. Fox, Mr. Hare, etc. Different cultures may associate different traits with the same animals.Humanized animals
Such animals fall between the previous two categories, that of an animal which possesses both human and animal characteristics. An example is Peter Rabbit, who dresses in a little English coat but engages in the very rabbit-like activity of stealing and eating carrots in the farmer's field, then being chased away by the horrid old man and having a nasty tumble which hurts badly along the way.Alleged talking animals
Gef the talking mongoose was an alleged talking animal who inhabited a small house on the Isle of Man, off the coast of mainland Great Britain. Opinion is divided on whether Gef was a poltergeist, a strange animal or cryptid, a hoax, or something else. Some doubt whether the case happened at all.
Paranormal researcher Charles Fort wrote in his book Wild Talents (1932) of several alleged cases of dogs that could speak English. Fort took the stories from contemporary newspaper counts, but they are unverifiable at this late date.
See also
External links
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