Thursday, August 12, 2021

On Pokémon Who Talk and Speak

It is quite well-known today that Pokémon communicate by uttering expressions that in effect contain bits of their species name, yet still contain distinct meanings. Pokémon who communicate in human language therefore becomes an oddity. Yet it's an oddity that deserves a certain consideration because of its implications for the way that the creatures communicate with others of their kind and even people.

The most famous (and practically the only example) is Meowth of Team Rocket fame in the anime. As the story goes, Meowth picked up human language - with the bipedal characteristic as an aside - in order to get in touch with a "humane" side, but it turned out to be too much. Yet Meowth is still able to understand communication among the creatures and has at times been employed as an "interpreter" by them. The human language communication may then be considered just a human "front" for Pokémon communication that still takes place in their "vernacular".

For Pokémon of the Psychic type with exceptional abilities, they may opt to use telepathy instead, with anime evidence indicated by Mewtwo and Lugia. In any case, they don't physically appear to be able to show common vernacular communication with other Pokémon - in the case of Lugia, howls can be particularly significant - but they need to communicate somehow. Given their ethereal abilities and limited physical communicative means, telepathy makes sense as communication may still be necessary at times and toward people, even if it's not a primary thing for them.

It should be noted that the Pokémon anime had originally been planned to have Pokémon talking in human language, much like the "monsters next door", but this was considered infeasible, and the anime simply had the "vernacular" of the species name. The games never went beyond this except in Mystery Dungeon and games where only Pokémon are concerned, where the captions contain their communicative messages and the name "vernacular" is simply added for emphasis of what likely actually took place.

Considering human language communication for Pokémon as an oddity, the early Pokémon manga by Kosaku Anakubo becomes an oddity as well, in that the manga clearly depicts as such, except in the case of one Pokémon. Yet in this inverse state, it may be plausible to think of it instead as "artistic license" rather than a complete oddity. It's still not possible to escape the fact that the manga has a very different style for everything, especially in comparison to normal expectations, so the consideration of it as an "oddity" may still hold.

The reality is still that aside from the case of Meowth with a clear backstory and some Psychic-type Pokémon with an innate ability, human language communication for Pokémon isn't the norm. What is the norm is a more natural mode of communication with their species name, but with a shade of linguistic interpretation. Whether it's an oddity or not, that may be up to the Pokémon to decide, perhaps with their human companions as well.

Four years ago: Cosplay: DANOBU 4

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