[Theory] Why can't Pokemon speak English?

Nidoking76

Not splitting the party
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    Although at first it seems that it's just a goofy thing, it slowly makes less and less sense when you realize that if a Pokemon can easily say it's name, that means that it has the proper vocal cord structure to speak English. And since they're sapient, they should be able to learn English just by listening to us. So, here is the obvious question:
    Why can't they speak English?
     
    Pokémon aren't actually supposed to say their names, they make animal-like noises as seen in Pokémon Origins, the Black 2/White 2 animated trailer, and the games themselves. The whole name-saying thing was made up by the anime (and for the sake of promotion, Pikachu says it's name in official media).
     
    Chaos Rush said:
    Pokémon aren't actually supposed to say their names, they make animal-like noises as seen in Pokémon Origins, the Black 2/White 2 animated trailer, and the games themselves. The whole name-saying thing was made up by the anime (and for the sake of promotion, Pikachu says it's name in official media).
    Click to expand...

    Okay, so I get what you're saying. They only ever make these noises in the Anime, and they don't say their names in the games. Just the Anime. But does that mean that the Anime isn't canon?
     
    nidoking76 said:
    Okay, so I get what you're saying. They only ever make these noises in the Anime, and they don't say their names in the games. Just the Anime. But does that mean that the Anime isn't canon?
    Click to expand...
    Well, to answer your question, the anime and games are two separate canons. So no, the anime isn't canon in terms of where the games stand, and vice-versa. The two canons contradict each other heavily (talking Pokémon, Kyurem is supposed to require Reshiram or Zekrom to transform). Not to mention that Toshinobu Matsumiya (head dialogue writer for the Pokémon games) officially confirmed on Twitter that the timeline of the Pokémon games are FR/LG = R/S/E ---> HG/SS = D/P/Pt ---> B/W ---> B2/W2 = X/Y, and surely that would contradict the anime.
     
    I've always assumed the game canon was seperate from the others, but as far as the anime and some of the manga are concerned, I'm sure many Pokemon can learn English (or whatever language it's being translated into), it's just a matter of teaching themselves how to do it. In the anime, both Meowth and a Slowking from Pokemon 2000 have been shown to speak English fluently, and a bunch of others can speak telepathically to humans. I can't really speak on behalf of the manga, but I can only assume that Meowth speaks normally as well in The Electric Tale of Pikachu.

    I'm guessing that even though Pokemon can understand human language, the hardest part is for them to properly vocalize what they're saying. Go West Young Meowth showed Meowth learning how to speak, and it seems to have taken him a while to fully grasp it, even if he knew what he wanted to say. Who knows, maybe Pokemon still have limited vocal structures, which is why we get Pokemon like Pikachu saying words that sound like what it's saying (Pika-Pi for Satoshi/Ash, PiPiPi for Togepi, etc.), but they'll never be fluent in our own language.
     
    Because they are Japanese.
     
    I don't really think they actually call their names, per say; it's just their sound, and perhaps humans named these Pokémon based off them for resemblance? Personally, though, I love their in-game cries; if Pokémon had existed in real life, that's exactly how I'd expect them to sound. d: Would be nice if they adapt them to anime someday, but chances of that happening are very unlikely, haha.
     
    What I've really been wondering is how Pokemon seem to perfectly understand every single human language there is. Animals in real life only understand a limited number of words and phrases. If you meet someone who speaks a language you don't know, you can't communicate with them much either.

    Yet, a Pokemon that's been living in the wild its entire life with little to no human contact can understand any language without a hitch. What up with that? You can be like:

    "Charizard, use Flamethrower!" And it'll know exactly what you mean. And then you can say to the same Charizard:

    "Glurak, benutze Flammenwurf!" And it'll still know that you're talking to it and want it to use Flamethrower.

    Maybe pokemon are linguistic geniuses?
     
    Brendino said:
    I'm sure many Pokemon can learn English (or whatever language it's being translated into), it's just a matter of teaching themselves how to do it. In the anime, both Meowth and a Slowking from Pokemon 2000 have been shown to speak English fluently, and a bunch of others can speak telepathically to humans. I can't really speak on behalf of the manga, but I can only assume that Meowth speaks normally as well in The Electric Tale of Pikachu.
    Click to expand...

    I seem to remember reading somewhere that Meowth in the anime was able to teach himself how to speak English, but for some reason he could never learn Pay Day because of this.

    I guess Pokemon have limited amount of capacity to keep and remember things? I mean, even in the anime, we never see a Pokemon knowing more than 4 moves at one time. and Meowth himself apparently only knows 3 moves.
     
    Pokemon in the Anime aren't always named after the sound they make, otherwise Kingler would be named "Cookie".
     
    Hm, so the question is how can Pokemon understand humans but they can not speak the human's language (in the case English)? Well, I have two theories:

    1.) Pokemon are able to comprehend everything a human says, but have no motivation to learn English
    2.) Some Pokemon have the ability to speak the language, but don't have the evolved characteristics to do so.

    So let's start on the first theory, with a pivotal point: Meowth. In the anime, Meowth is the only known Pokemon who is able to speak to both Pokemon and humans. How was he able to do so? Well if you watched the first season of the anime you will know that Meowth learned so through listening to a teacher and repeating phrases such as "Sally sells seashells by the seashore" until he had somehow learned the entire English language. Why would he go through all of this trouble? Simple, in episode 72 of the anime, "Meowth Goes West" we see a flashback of Meowth's past in that Meowth tried to become more human like to attract a girl Meowth, Meowsy. In order to do that he learned English. Although, Meowth learned English it came with a price. He only knows one attack: Scratch. He did not learn Pay Day because he had spent all of his time learning a new language. This is why ordinary Pokemon don't have the motivation to learn English. If they spent their time learning a new language then they couldn't get stronger. Most Pokemon, such as Alakazam and Slowpoke for example, have IQs exponentially higher than humans. However, if they spent their time learning a language then they could not focus on evolving, and learning their core moves to keep up with the rest of their species.

    Now for the second theory. Each Pokemon species is made uniquely and in a different way. Although they can communicate with each other, how would they be able to talk to humans. Think of a Lickitung, would a Pokemon like that be able to pronounce most human words with such a long tongue? Not only would it be creepy, but impossible as well! Like animals, even if they could talk most Pokemon don't have the characteristics to be able to speak another language.
     
    If Pokemons are like regular animals, they obviously can't speak English...

    However, depending on how their brains are, they should be able to understand some determined patterns of our language, like a monkey can do, and communicate somehow.

    The interesting part is that some monster can say "Charmander", it's proves that it has a good anatomical condition to speak... So their problems is the brain, not their body!

    Considering the name thing, from what I understand, people names Pokemons after the sound they make; so if someone is "pika pika pika chu", it's natural to get such complex sound and use it as a name!
     
    I guess its about logic and feeling. Go for logic and you would say cries are better. About Pokemon speaking out their names, well, its kinda cute. Maybe marketing strategy.
     
    Maybe it's because they're like animals, and thus don't have the level of intelligence we do??
     
    Well, I'm sure they have the intelligence to do so. Especially the ones with psychic powers, like Alakazam, who apparently remembers everything in its entire life.

    Maybe pokemon vocal chords aren't able to make human-language sounds? And lots of pokemon are have already been living in the wild, only hearing other pokemon, before they are caught.

    For example, in Chatot's pokedex entry, it says it can speak like a human because of its tongue. So I think pokemon are smart enough to understand language, it's just their biology that stops them from speaking like humans.
     
    Salt&PepperDiner said:
    What I've really been wondering is how Pokemon seem to perfectly understand every single human language there is. Animals in real life only understand a limited number of words and phrases. If you meet someone who speaks a language you don't know, you can't communicate with them much either.

    Yet, a Pokemon that's been living in the wild its entire life with little to no human contact can understand any language without a hitch. What up with that? You can be like:

    "Charizard, use Flamethrower!" And it'll know exactly what you mean. And then you can say to the same Charizard:

    "Glurak, benutze Flammenwurf!" And it'll still know that you're talking to it and want it to use Flamethrower.

    Maybe pokemon are linguistic geniuses?
    Click to expand...

    I have a theory. Once a Pokemon enters a Pokeball for the first time, his brain kind of "downloads" every human speech pattern in the world. However, the Pokemon is still an animal, so it is still limitless to grunts and roars, except in the cases of telepathy or Chatot, or specially gifted Pokemon like Meowth.
     
    Pokemon are like super-powered, magical animals that have special abilities and prowess. There's nothing that confidently suppresses the theory that Pokemon have distinguished brains that can compute languages at astonishing rates. Of course, since they're based off real-life animals, it may seem odd that they can understand languages so perfectly, but I like to think that they're just scientifically more intellegent than normal creatures, haha.

    Sure, Slowpoke and Muk may not seem, at a glance, to be very knowledgeable, but the trait may protrude in some Pokemon more than others. Alakazam is obviously one of the most astute, intuitive Pokemon in the entire series, and so they're not all going to have the same outstanding intellectual ability!
     
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