Mittu the parrot deserves congratulations – or as the African grey might say, ‘shabaash’.
The bilingual bird has developed an impressive vocabulary in both English and Urdu after being raised in a home where both are spoken.
As well as the likes of 'who's a pretty boy then', the two-year-old has mastered the traditional Muslim greeting 'asalaam alaykum' and 'bismillah', the Urdu for 'in the name of Allah'.
Owner Ghaffar Ahmed, 36, said: 'He speaks Urdu and English. But he also barks like a dog and makes the noise of the refrigerator alarm, so he likes making all sorts of noises really.'
Mittu lives with Mr Ahmed's family in Stourbridge, West Midlands. This year a study found that African greys are capable of the same level of intelligent reasoning as a four-year-old child.
Mr Ahmed said: 'I don't know how many bilingual birds there are in the UK but there can't be many.'
Mr Ahmed, who runs a car firm and accident management company, says he is refusing to take him out to the local mosque - after the parrot escaped recently from his workplace.
Mr Ahmed, his wife, Shabana, 31, and their three young daughters were 'devastated' when he disappeared.
But tears turned to joy when the bird turned up four days later having flown four miles away.
Susan Lane, from Halesowen, West Midlands, found the Mittu in her holly tree and found Mr Ahmed online.
'As soon as we were reunited he came and kissed my face,' Mr Ahmed added.
'We were delighted to have him back, it was like losing one of the family when he flew off.
'So I’m not letting him go out any more, I’m keeping a close eye on him from now on.' (Daily Mail)
《字詞解析》
bilingual － (adj.) (能說) 兩種語言的；雙語的。這個字亦可當名詞用，意為「能說兩種語言的人」。
Urdu － (n.) 烏爾都語 (印度和巴基斯坦通用語)。
African grey － (n.) 非洲灰鸚。African grey 指的就是這隻名叫 Mittu 的鸚鵡。Grey 是英式英語的拼法，美式英語拼成 gray。
shabaash － (n.) 烏爾都語的「恭喜」(congratulations)。
master － (v.) 精通。
in the name of Allah － (phr.) 以真主阿拉之名。
bark － (v.) (狗、狐等) 吠叫。
Intelligent reasoning － (n.) 智慧推理 (能力)。簡言之，就是模擬人類的知識及決策能力。
run － (v.) 經營。
mosque － (n.) (回教) 清真寺。
devastate － (v.) 使十分震驚；使非常難過。在此，devastated 為過去分詞形容詞，意為「十分震驚的；非常難過的」。
tears turned to joy － (idiom) 轉悲為喜。
holly tree － (n.) 冬青樹。
Keep a close eye on － (phr. v.) 密切注意。
from now on － (phr.) 從現在起。
延伸閱讀：新聞英語的語法結構