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Published online 6 September 2004 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news040906-1
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Parrots speak in tongues
Ability to modify vowels underpins mimicry skills.
Ever wondered what makes parrots so good at mimicking human speech? It turns out that the feathered impressionists use their tongues to create vowel-like sounds, just as we do.
In human speech, noise is produced in the larynx and can then be modified by the movement of the tongue in the mouth.
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