Our parakeet had a huge vocabulary that it learned while listening to Mom as she did all the normal housework tasks. There wasn't much profanity involved until Mom demonstrated all the things she had taught the bird to say. After that, Dad and the rest of us saw the awesome potential and began working to expand his vocabulary. Cowboy Bird. Thrilled us all with his ramblings.
"I'm a genu-wine cowboy bird, giddy-up, giddy-up, giddy-up horsey!"
That was one of his most common pronouncements. Mom taught him to say that.
"I'm a jabberwocky bird."
"Stop that, Bear!"
Bear was our dog. He originally hated the attention that the bird got and once leaped into the air as the bird flew past and caught him in his mouth. We watched for a second as Bear looked triumphantly at us, wings and tail feathers all you could see of the old Cowboy Bird.
Mom rushed in to save the bird, slapping the dog across the nose so he would release it. From that point on the dog carefully guarded the bird since I think he understood that the bird was as much a valued member of the family as he was.
Cowboy Bird, upon being released was hilariously vocal about the ordeal.
"Dammit Bear! Stop that, Bear! Shit! Damn. Dammit Bear! I'm a jabberwocky bird!"
With his admonishments, he seemed to understand the context of the situation perfectly.
I think the bird also had a sense about who was present and able to hear him. He babbled constantly to anyone and almost everyone. There was one person, a friend of my mother's, who despite visiting numerous times never heard the bird say anything. Cowboy Bird was totally muted every time she visited. When she would call on the telephone, the bird stopped talking until the phone call ended. Mom used to try to coax the bird to talk since she had bragged about the bird's large vocabulary so many times but she was never able to get the bird to say a word as long as the friend was in a position to hear. Once the friend was no longer in earshot, Cowboy Bird resumed the verbalizing.
Dad had a crow for a pet as a kid. He taught it to talk though I don't remember how large a vocabulary it had.
My cat, as mentioned earlier, started every morning with a "Hello" until you opened the door and fed her or petted her. When she needed anything, she would pace by the door saying "Hello". She spent more than a year in the shelter before we rescued her. She was an older cat then and has since passed on to her next opportunity. I hope she spends less time in a shelter this time around. Second sweetest cat ever. Mice, birds, lizards, and bugs trembled with fear when she wandered around.