Sci-Kick

At the start of the 19th century, the German Geographer and Naturalist, Alexander von Humboldt stumbled on a curious language while exploring the Amazon basin. Not only had he never heard this strange language before, but the words were coming from an unlikely source – a parrot. According to Humboldt, the parrot was the last living creature to speak an otherwise dead tribal language. In June 1799, Humboldt, the quintessential researcher/explorer, set out from La Coruña in northern Spain for an exploration of North and South America. His journey took him five years, in which time he traveled through Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, and then onto Peru and Mexico, among other places, before making his way to the United States and onwards back to Europe. Throughout his trip, Humboldt gathered huge amounts of ecological and zoological data related to flora and fauna and even the local climates he encountered. He also kept lengthy notes on the human culture he witnessed and detailed everything from local politics to different traditions. His ability to speak Spanish was also a great benefit, as it allowed him to communicate – at least in part – with some local tribes as he traveled, which was extremely serendipitous. According to popular story, while exploring the Orinoco River, in modern-day Venezuela, Humboldt stayed with a local tribe near the village of Maypures. It was here that the explorer apparently met a parrot that spoke something different to all the others surrounding it. After enquiring with the locals, Humboldt was told that the bird had once belonged to an enemy tribe who had been forced from the area where they eventually died out on a small islet some distance away. The parrot, it seemed, was the last survivor to speak this strange language. Ever the diligent researcher, Humboldt apparently bought the parrot and brought it back to Europe with him where he proceeded to record the phonetic sounds of the bird’s speech. In doing so, he preserved the last utterances of an extinct language and culture. Humboldt was able to record around 40 words spoken by the parrot which he recorded. This material has been an inspiration for generations of linguists who regard it as a powerful example of how languages can easily die if there is no one (or no bird) left to speak them. In 1997, an artist even taught the words to modern parrots and toured with the recordings so a new generation could hear this lost language.