Do animals have accents? Dan Gardner, Rutland
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Readers reply
Birds do have accents, depending on where they are brought up, especially parrots, who will even pick up local slang. Birds, like many animals, are also likely to choose or invent different playlists when mating. RPOrlando
Rooks in County Galway, where my son lives, have a different accent to those in south Oxfordshire, where I live. Julia West
Yes – at least, blackbirds do. I have lived in various places in the Midlands and noticed differences in the songs of blackbirds. I also play the penny whistle and have a musical ear. Some time ago, I moved to the middle of France and blackbirds’ songs are quite different. I now live in Brittany – and the songs are different again. P Robinson
I can’t vouch for the puffins in the picture, but whales vary their songs. Researchers have tracked how different song versions get transmitted to distant pods and then adopted into their song books, so that the songs change as they travel the oceans. While not exactly an “accent”, as we humans consider it, it’s pretty close to a dialect. Stephanie Blue
Presumably whales have a whelsh accent. MrCassandra
Regional variation makes as much sense in birds, fish and even insects as it does in humans. Vocalisation is dynamic and evolving rather than static, as individuals learn, copy and adapt. Some species are more given to vocal variations than others, but the further a species has spread, the more regional accents there are likely to be. speckledhen
No. Accents are a feature of language, and animals have no language. There are regional variations in the way many species communicate, and they may serve similar purposes (eg to identify group members), but to describe these as accents would be as misleading as to describe them as languages or dialects. It’s a very rough analogy at best. alexito
Not sure about all animals, but I have fond childhood memories of a blue hound that had a wonderful North Carolina accent. bricklayersoption
Fairly sure my neighbour’s dog is from Barking. lefthook
Goats do, apparently. Research has shown that goats separated from their herd can identify the calls of their own herd, distinguishing them from other herds of the same species. It’s not surprising: goat herds stick together by calling to each other, and it’s plainly a useful ability to recognise your own social group. Humans no doubt do this for much the same reason. The shibboleth story in the Bible is an extreme example of this. incorruptible
I can only state that my cat has a very thick Northern Irish accent. He is, however, from the north-east of England and never been over the water in his life. I do think this is an affectation, yet he gets incredibly defensive when challenged. Abbey Evans
My cat born and raised in the south of England pronounces it “meeyaah” and my northern cat “oww”, so, yes, I think animals have accents. VladTheImpartial
We adopted two cats that had lived together but had very different lives. One was a male farm cat that grew up near Brisbane, Australia. The other was a female rescue cat from Battersea cats’ home in London. They spoke to each other, but in a completely different way. The male farm cat spoke in yowls and hissed a lot, while the female rescue cat spoke in sweet, short miaows. I’ve had male cats before, but none were as expressive as this farm cat, who was very stubborn and liked to roam. His most endearing trait was expecting the weather to be different outside different doors. When he discovered it was raining out of both, he would hold you personally responsible and make a long complaint.
He showed a lot of concern for the younger female cat, though. One snowy night when I couldn’t find her, he went leaping through the deep snow with me, calling out to her. We finally found her snugly rolled up in a duvet at the end of a bed. He’s been gone about six years, but I still miss his yowling and hissing conversations. CharlieFarley
