Squawks of a language

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859).  Everything is Interaction by Steve Simon.

From The Future Starts Here by David Crystal.  Can't believe I have not heard this story before.

There is a report, probably apocryphal, of an event which took place when the explorer Alexander von Humboldt was searching for the source of the Orinoco, in South America, in 1801. He met some Carib Indians who had recently exterminated a neighbouring tribe (possibly a Maypure group) and captured some of their domesticated parrots. The parrots still spoke words of the now extinct language, and von Humboldt - so the story goes - was able to transcribe some of them. Having heard this story, Rachel Berwick, professor of sculpture at Yale University, saw its intriguing possibilities, and constructed an artwork based upon it: she designed a special enclosure in which were displayed two Amazon parrots who had been trained to speak some words from Maypure, and this was then exhibited at various venues. By all accounts, the venture focused the mind wonderfully. So, if sculpture, why not music? Why is there not yet a symphony for dying languages? Has there been a pop concert in support of Language Aid? It would be good to see some of these initiatives in the opening decades of the new millennium. But they need to be planned for. A house of languages can help to focus public interest in a way that few other organizations can. The difference between 'house' and 'home' is very small.

What a chilling but intriguing idea that the last words of your language might be heard by the ears of man through the beaks of your pet parrots.