Polly-glots
December 2, 2015 7:27 AM   Subscribe

 
MetaFilter: ‘weep! weep! weep!’

Also, this reminds me I want to learn Yoruba. After I get like half a dozen other things taken care of first.
posted by Wolfdog at 7:31 AM on December 2, 2015 [4 favorites]


Well, maybe a dozen other things.

Well maybe I'll learn Yoruba when I'm dead.
posted by Wolfdog at 7:31 AM on December 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


Obviously you teach it a hilarious variety of swears in as many languages as possible, surely everyone knows this. What kind of irresponsible parrot owner does not know this.
posted by poffin boffin at 7:38 AM on December 2, 2015 [5 favorites]


I read an anecdote in one of the funny Reader's Digest story sections (shut up I love them) that is one of my favorite things. The guy submitting the story went into a pet store and saw a parrot and they started at each other in silence for like fifteen seconds and he was about to leave when the parrot out of nowhere was like "Can't you talk?". It is brilliant.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 7:46 AM on December 2, 2015 [7 favorites]


Oh my god if I got a parrot it would sing Slayer

Jesusknowsyoursoulcannotbesaved!
HEEEEELL AWWWWKwaits!
posted by ignignokt at 7:51 AM on December 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


so which one do you teach a parrot?

English swear words please.
posted by OwlBoy at 8:00 AM on December 2, 2015


“I told her: ‘This is a rubbish language. Try my own,’ ”

This is like the entire history of the human species in one sentence.
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:00 AM on December 2, 2015 [18 favorites]


But really, if you think about this question analytically for a minute instead, it seems obvious that the answer is Fang. You teach a parrot Fang.
posted by Wolfdog at 8:09 AM on December 2, 2015


Polly-glot...
posted by AJaffe at 8:14 AM on December 2, 2015


Polly-glot...

You have post titles turned off, don't you?

However, this lets me remind everyone that, if you teach your parrot too many languages, it's brain will eventually overload, and the poor parrot will become a duck. This is where we get the famous phrase "polyglot: a quacker."
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:18 AM on December 2, 2015 [11 favorites]


I'm surprised that MetaFilter settings actually enable you to turn off titles on the article itself, too.
posted by Wolfdog at 8:20 AM on December 2, 2015


Rats! (Full disclosure -- I work at the WSJ and suggested that to them, actually...) (slinks off, never to be heard from again...) (wasn't paying attention...) (sorry!)
posted by AJaffe at 8:28 AM on December 2, 2015 [3 favorites]


I'd teach my parrot to recite the Ursonate.

Just so I could say "This parrot is Dada".
posted by Devonian at 8:40 AM on December 2, 2015


My parrot speaks many languages. As far as I know she has only ever heard English, but that does not stop her.
posted by kinnakeet at 8:44 AM on December 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


(I'm not kidding about wanting to learn Yoruba, by the way. I was browsing the FSI language materials and checked out Yoruba and just went whoa this is really fascinating.)
posted by Wolfdog at 9:08 AM on December 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


"polyglot: a quacker"

Ironically, no language can express how awful that pun is.
posted by jedicus at 9:41 AM on December 2, 2015 [4 favorites]


Oh my god if I got a parrot it would sing Slayer

Psssht. It's much better when they do their own material.
posted by lumpenprole at 11:00 AM on December 2, 2015 [1 favorite]


Oh man, this article delights the bird lovers soul! My budgie was adopted by sparrows before we adopted him and he speaks sparrow quite fluently, often calling them to an empty bird feeder when the window Iis open. I am pretty sure his knack for mimicry is what helped him get through the summer.

He also imitates the cockatiel. When Muffin is hiding somewhere in the living room, it's the budgie that answers to his name with an enthusiastic "Wheet!".
posted by Calzephyr at 11:56 AM on December 2, 2015


so which one do you teach a parrot?

You teach it the local arrrgot.
posted by bentley at 2:32 PM on December 2, 2015 [3 favorites]


That was a delightful piece, thank you.

The 37-year-old bird handling veteran could, of course, hire a Yoruba person to come train his parrots. But that person wouldn’t be able to join in on their conversations.

“We are Hausa here,” he said. “He wouldn’t belong.”


I thought this was interesting. It called to mind more than one interaction I've had. Nigeria - like many African countries (I'm thinking of Kenya and Namibia myself, the only two I've spent appreciable time in) - still covers gigantic cultural territories, of which language is merely one (highly visibility marker).

I found the whole way we think cultural identities here in the west is so different to how it's conceptualised in Kenya, for example.
posted by smoke at 2:34 AM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]


When he peered into the cage, the bird blared back: “Waka, waka!”

In Hausa, this is a very bad thing for a bird to say. Roughly translated, it means “your mother.”


Fozzie, you have been A VERY BAD BEAR.
posted by MonkeyToes at 2:07 PM on December 4, 2015 [2 favorites]


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