#anyway i think i heard that meerkats do something like this to warn their colony about danger

[gamebunny-advance]

Hah.

I'm not a linguist, so I don't have the terms to really describe what I'm explaining, but I like how the latest Pikmin comic implies that the Pikmin language probably doesn't contain specific words for specific items. Instead, it seems like they communicate almost strictly with descriptive language.

While it's possible that "bulborb" and "mushroom" are just similar sounding words in the Pikmin language, I think the implication is that their language is very context-sensitive, so missing any part of a message can significantly change its meaning.

So for example, "bulborb" might be something like "dangerous spotted big red" in the Pikmin language, then the yellow pikmin might have misheard the "dangerous" part and just heard "spotted big red" which would be their word for "mushroom."

It's very fascinating~