History Main / AnimalTalk

* Sorcerors in ''TheBelgariad'' instantly learn the language of an animal on transforming into it. Wolves have a language that is primarily dominated by body language, while birds are noted to spend a lot of time yelling that a certain nest is theirs.

* The fairies from ''DisneyFairies'' actually all speak human language when left alone, but make tinkling noises when with humans.

* Played with in ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'': trying to reason with a giant dinosaur that more than slightly resembles Franchise/{{Godzilla}}, Sabrina tries [[GenreSavvy Japanese]]. As it turns out, the dinosaur actually speaks French (a reference to then recent US ''Film/{{Godzilla 1998}}'' movie).

* Played with in ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'': trying to reason with a giant dinosaur that more than slightly resembles Franchise/{{Godzilla}}, Sabrina tries [[GenreSavvy Japanese]]. As it turns out, the dinosaur actually speaks French (a reference to then recent US ''Film/{{Godzilla 1998}}'' movie).

* In ''TheFoxbusters'', unlike in the book it's based on, all of the species are shown to be able to communicate with each other quite easily. They are also shown to be capable of understanding English as well (in fact it's likely they are meant to be speaking English, rather than animal talk) with characters shown reading, writing and in one episode even making a phone call.

** The sequels feature animals that, while sentient, don't seem to talk. Examples include Cretaceous and Maelstrom from ''The Meltdown'', the dinosaurs from ''Dawn of the Dinosaurs'', and the hyraxes from ''Continental Drift''.
** Interestingly, Santa Claus from ''A Mammoth Christmas'' is able to communicate with the animals. It might be because he's magical.

** Neither can the dinosaurs from the third film, but they are just as intelligent as other animals according to their facial expressions.

* Averted to an extent in both ''The Sight'' and ''Firebringer'' by David Clement-Davies, in that animals of different ''types'' cannot talk to each other. All deer breeds can inter-communicate, as can most sea animals. Only animals of exceptional ability, such as the deer Rannoch can understand all animals, and his speaking to them shocks them greatly. It is stated however that any animal can learn this ability if they try. Humans are an exception however. Even Rannoch cannot understand his captors, despite his innate ability for every other language around him.

* In all the ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' comics, movies, specials, and series except ''TheGarfieldShow'', the animals can understand human language, but not vice versa.

** It doesn't (necessarily) cross some species though, even species as closely related as humans and chimpanzees. A chimp who "smiles" at you is ''not'' actually happy-the expression is what's known as a "fear grimace" and means that the chimpanzee feels threatened (and a threatened chimp, especially a male, is likely to attack).

** It doesn't (necessarily) cross some species though, even species as closely related as humans and chimpanzees. A chimp who "smiles" at you is ''not'' actually happy- it's a "look how sharp my teeth are" threatening gesture.

** There are apparently at least three languages: those of the "Hunting-People", the Bird-People, and the Snake-People. Baloo knows at least a bit of all of these (having learned from Hathi, who is implied to know even more), but has to send Mowgli off to a "native" speaker to learn the Master-Word of the Snake-People, since while Baloo can recognize it when he hears it he can't pronounce it.

* Although not animal talk, the baby/adult language on ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' works the same way. The babies can all talk to each other and can understand adults, but the adults can't understand them. Big kids, like Angelica and Susie, are the privileged polyglots that can understand and talk to both.

This is Level 3 on the SlidingScaleOfAnimalCommunication.

* Played with in ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'': trying to reason with a giant dinosaur that more than slightly resembles Franchise/{{Godzilla}}, Sabrina tries [[GenreSavvy Japanese]]. As it turns out, the dinosaur actually speaks French (a reference to then recent US ''Film/{{Godzilla}}'' movie).

* Happens with Krypto in the old ''{{Superboy}}'' comics. Modern comics featuring Krypto have averted this by making him think in fragments like one might expect from an animal.

*** Moot point anyway, since he got turned into a squid monster and replaced with a lookalike.
*** [[DeathIsCheap He's back!]]

** It doesn't (necessarily) cross some species though, even species as closely related as humans and chimpanzees... A chimp who "smiles" at you is ''not'' actually happy- it's a "look how sharp my teeth are" threatening gesture.

** It doesn't (necessarily) cross species though, even species as closely related as humans and chimps. A chimp that "smiles" at you is ''not'' happy ... it's a "look how sharp my teeth are" threat gesture.

*** Though calling it "language" is questionable; they are capable of signing, but what they do does not constitute "language". One of the more famous examples is Koko the gorilla, who "speaks" a kind of pidgin version of American Sign Language ... sloppily and with so many idiosyncracies that even people who themselves know ASL have to rely on her handler to translate. It's been suggested by a number of authorities that most of the more coherent statements Koko is "quoted" as making are somewhere between wishful thinking and entirely made up by her handler based on selectively deciding which gestures to assign a meaning to and which to ignore. There's clearly ''something'' like an attempt to communicate going on, but calling it language is definitely a stretch.