Can Animal Companions SPEAK Sylvan?

[TheYell]

Plan is to give my Megaloceros a 3 in INT and a point in Linguistics and have it take Sylvan. (so sorry party, only I command the Elk)

Sylvan is the language of unicorns and fey, so, does the Elk have the vocal capacity to speak Sylvan?

[Lvl 2 Expert]

I'm not sure about this at all but I think at int 3 an animal counts as an uplifted animal, which may or may not be a subset of magical creatures, and uplifted animals I think as a rule can learn languages.

[Daefos]

There’s an entire section that deals with the issue of Intelligent Animal Companions (available on the Animal Companion page (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/druid/animal-companions/#Intelligent_Animals-2)on the d20srd):

Increasing an animal’s Intelligence to 3 or higher means it is smart enough to understand a language. However, unless an awaken spell is used, the animal doesn’t automatically and instantly learn a language, any more than a human child does. The animal must be taught a language, usually over the course of months, giving it the understanding of the meaning of words and sentences beyond its trained responses to commands like “attack” and “heel.”

Even if the animal is taught to understand a language, it probably lacks the anatomy to actually speak (unless awaken is used). For example, dogs, elephants, and even gorillas lack the proper physiology to speak humanoid languages, though they can use their limited “vocabulary” of sounds to articulate concepts, especially if working with a person who learns what the sounds mean.

[TheYell]

Well lemme set out what I'd like to do. I'd like an Elk scout that can vanish into the forest and come back in a day and answer questions about what it's seen.

SPEAK is a trick that can be taught, but its very very limited. I could do a few questions like "Any Men? How many" and get an answer like "Yes, more than three."

I was thinking if I raised INT to the point it could take a skill in Linguistics and learn Sylvan, which my hunter knows, then it could give expanded answers if I taught it SPEAK and SEEK.

Sylvan is not technically a human language, and there's the canon example of unicorns speaking it.


Just fishing for responses to my mad scheme

[Pleh]

There’s an entire section that deals with the issue of Intelligent Animal Companions (available on the Animal Companion page (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/druid/animal-companions/#Intelligent_Animals-2)on the d20srd):

This is a fair point, however, a DM might fairly make an exception for fictional languages whose phonetic structure is undefined and might be within the capacity of most animals.

If any language would be fair game to interpret as basic vocalizations and gestures, Sylvan has the most right to claim it.

That said, I like the Star Wars Saga interpretation that sometimes learning a language doesn't let you speak it, but it does let you understand it.

An animal companion with animal intelligence can recognize common phrases, especially command words.

But an intelligent animal might fully understand the speech of people around them, even if they remain mute and they may still be rather unsophisticated about it ("the ability to understand speech does not make you intelligent.")