What words are easy to learn?

[SFsailor]

I am reading the book "Alex and Me" by Irene Pepperberg, and it in she say that birds have trouble pronouncing some words because they do not have lips to make certain phenomenons. For instance they can not say paper because the "pa" in paper requires putting ones lips together.

 

So my question is what words can you bird say clearly?

 

On a side note... my bird says I love you by saying "Wuu Wuu Wuu" hehehe

 

She can pronounce many words like "god dam it" "get outta here" "poncho" "doggy" "foodies" to name a few.<br><br>Post edited by: SFsailor, at: 2010/01/04 01:54

[danmcq]

They do need more practice for words that we use our lips to pronounce clearly with P's, B's and M's.

 

However, Greys have muscles controlling the air flow for vocalization that we do not have and thus can precisely duplicate all sounds we can make. They will practice and calibrate until they are mimicking us precisely, including our lazy letters and speech.

 

My Grey can say all letters very clear in words like Poop, Put, Pea,aPPle, Mommy, My, Boy,Ball, Bean, Banana etc.

 

I can not count the number of words or even phrases that he says and in correct context any longer, I quit after around 180.<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2009/12/31 17:24

[Dave007]

As Dan said, greys have an extremely versatile amount of muscles that develop over time. As that happens the amount of time that words will come out is easier and takes less time to come out.

 

Concerning lips--greys and all other parrots have no lips nor do they need them to talk. All sounds come the rear of the throat and are formed thru vibration and control of those muscles. Some greys excel concerning human language and others excel concerning all types of sounds.

 

Parrots talk all day long but they're making sounds in parrotese which isn't mimicing anything. It's their natural speech. Other birds understand them but not many people do. It's a great experience to learn what a bird is saying in parrotese. They use that language to talk to us all the time.

 

As far as Alex, he really didn't have a large amount words that he imitated. Maybe 125 to 150 words. His big thing was cognitive association.

 

I've come across many greys who have the ability to say anything from 500 to 900 words. Yes, some of those words have to do with us but the majority of those words simply have to do with imitation. A grey will go through it's whole vocabulary of words during the day even though people aren't around. They'll also do the same thing with sounds.

[Mistyparrot]

I have also read Alex and Me and that was one of the things that puzzled me.

Irene must know that parrots don't form words as we do. They use a special sound producing organ called the syrinx. It is a bony organ surrounded by an air sac and located at the base of the bird's windpipe. If fact Greys are able to produce any word or sound that humans can make as well as sounds that most humans would find impossible to form.

My GAG Misty is certainly able to pronounce "parrot", "pepper" and "pomegranate". He has yet to say "paper" but there is no physiological reason for that.

That said I have wondered if it might be possible to genetically engineer a parrot to have lips instead of a beak. I guess if they did they would have to have teeth so it might not prevent them from biting but they would be better kissers. :lol:

 

Steve n Misty

[Sindbad]

This is very interesting. One of the early words that Sindbad learned was the word that we used to potty train him, "POOP" and he said it in the all the tones I said it to him including that variation with a very strong "P" (where the P is pronounced with a strong explossion/aspiration). Being a linguist by training I wondered how he made a bilabial explossive cononant like the "P" with such clarity. Then he learned the word "up" and said it perfectly. The only explanation I can think of is that they have extra speech organsor may be muscles that allow them to make those sounds.

 

However, I think when they are young, parrots tend to pick simple words made of one or two syllables like Hi or Hello. Sindbad is a year and half and he can only say mono/ bi-syllabic words (Hello, boassa, go up, up, poop). He is tring to produce more complex words but the way he pronounces them make them incomprehensible. May be it's his Parottease. Never heard of this parrot language. I wonder what he was trying to tell me when he uses it. )

[Talon]

Peek-a-boo!! That was Talon's first word. Curious thread, I look forward to learning more here! B)

[Janfromboone]

Tobie's first words were a phrase. "what's-up". I think only because Frank would go by his cage every day and say that to him. It was probebly the phrase he heard most often. He seemed to have trouble with "S" words. For instance, he would say "S-S-S-S" and I didn't know what he was trying to say until one day he blurted out "S-S-S-Super time" He still sais it this way sometimes.