Thanks!

"Either back it up or get fucked up."

curious how it's always humans saying that they're the only ones who have language..

Only humans have language.

Animal language.

They identified nouns and adjectives in prairie dog communication, that also seems to vary with regional dialects. I'll try to remember to dig up a source when I'm not out and about later.

Edit: here's a not fully scientific link, but has names and links for people who want to go deeper in the science while being a decent lay person's overview.

Yes, the blog name isn't very scientific looking (I have not read anything else on it). https://thehumanevolutionblog.com/2015/08/18/a-career-studying-the-sophisticated-vocabulary-of-prairie-dogs/

And here's a peer reviewed study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347205801174

What is this strange group on Lemmy that is so anti animal intelligence?

A rattlesnake can certainly communicate using sound, but is that language? Bright colors can communicate ideas of "do not eat this" across species as well, but they wouldn't fit my mental model of a language.

Koko the gorilla would beg to differ

If you walk without rhythm, you won't attract the worm.

Maybe its for a similar reason to why cats purr; vibration make brain feel different in a way that facilitates thought?

source im fuckin g insame

that's the sound of our brains venting the thinking gas

Sign language is even more universal (early hominids def would've had signs before proper spoken language).

If I hold out my arm, my palm towards you, you'd probably know what I mean.

Like this.

Maybe it also has to do with the human anatomy? Like, when people are thinking they probably have their mouth closed and maybe even purse their lips. The sound you can make in this pose is really just hmm I guess.

OK yeah, the next question would then be why we use certain facial expressions...

My cat follows all my commands. I say "ignore me and do nothing else I say" and he ignores me and continues with his day.

No,but I use similar tempos to call him and he comes.

Nah, it's trying to imitate the bird and is going, "No cat here, only friend" (in terms of purpose. In reality, the cat just knows birds with y appearance come to x sound, so make x sound to make y bird maybe come, the cat doesn't understand the mechanics, just that it works)

Cats do have limited mimicry abilities - It's probably why there are so many videos of cats "speaking" human words - adapting that mostly unused mimicry skill to get the human's attention with sounds it notices humans use to get the attention of other humans