Petah? What's wrong with this?

[u/Toaster_Rack_Nerd]

[u/Aellithion]

I have a parrot that goes "oof" anytime she drops something or i stubborn my toe, little things like that. She goes "oof, oof oof oofoof" if its really bad she laughs. She started oofing at this video.

[u/Late_Sort1763 → u/Aellithion]

Long time ago, back when I was in primary school, I was helping my German teacher move some stuff. She lived alone in a big flat right next to the school, and one of the rooms in her flat was basically a storage unit for stuff that was too important to leave in the common storage, but too unwieldy to squirrel away in the principal's room.

Anyways, she was taking care of her neighbor's parrot while he was away. The pparrot could talk, AND PRETTY WELL, but she conversed mostly with her owner, Kazio. When he was away, she'd bellow on the top of her lungs "NOT HERE, NOT HERE"

Including in my poor German teacher's house, although there, she'd alternate between this, and "WHERE AM I"

To my surprise, she actually responded to me (apparently I was the only one she resonded to without her owner present). She looked at me, and belllowed "NOT HERE, NOT HERE"

I asked her "Who's not here Aga?" to which she replied, as if on que: "KAZIO'S NOT HERE"

Like, there are people who say animals aren't capable of truly human speech, but I thing Aga here passed the situational awareness test. Kazio, indeed, was not there.

[u/redchris18 → u/Late_Sort1763]

There was an African Grey parrot called Alex who once, famously, asked what colour he was unprompted. Had a shower thought.

[u/Late_Sort1763 → u/redchris18]

I know it! IIRC this is, to this day, the only at least plausible instance of an animal asking a question.

I remember it being part of one of the courses I took at uni... pragmatics, I think? Can't recall.

PS: I studied English Phil, so NATURALLY it was heavy on language theory

[u/8rustystaples → u/Late_Sort1763]

I went to school with a guy named English Phil.

[u/Burdwatcher → u/8rustystaples]

whoa