One of Dr Bill’s metaword entries was:

anthropoglot: animal with human tongue; animal capable of speech

Looking it up in eight dictionaries (OK, OK, I know its sad!) I could only find two that gave speech capability as a second requirement. The other six said something like: “animal with human-like tongue, such as a parrot”.

Some questions arising:

- Does the word ‘speech’ necessarily imply the expression of a thought or can it mean simply using the words with no knowledge of why?
- Does a mynah bird use speech or does it just parrot?
- At times, mynah birds will use words and phrases that are relevent to a situation; that is, they respond to a stimulus appropriately. For example I have heard of a mynah that would say "Quiet!" to a barking dog, mimicking its owner's voice, and the dog would stop barking. Cause and effect, but did the mynah want the dog to stop barking or did the barking simply bring the word 'quiet' to its mind?
- Are there two requirements for ‘anthropoglotany’, each of which must be met and would that include or exclude, for example, the mynah bird?

Any thoughts or experience with mynahs?