There's a brief scene in Heavens River, book 4 of the Bobiverse series, where some characters spend some time with the equivalent of alien dolphins. The "dolphi

There's a brief scene in Heavens River, book 4 of the Bobiverse series, where some characters spend some time with the equivalent of alien dolphins. The "dolphins" have a very limited language that main consists of names and one word inquiries and warnings. For example, the local replicant who they know introduces his fellows. The dolphin speech is essentially "who? Marvin! Marvin friends?" Which is basically "Who are the strangers? Oh it's Marvin! Marvin, are these your friends?" I imagine most animal languages are at this level. And nothing wrong with that. For their lifestyles, many intelligent animals with a language like this are served perfectly well. Personal identifiers to call out friendly individuals, names for threats, maybe even general welcomes for fellow groups like elephants and whales that generally live in family groups and occasionally meet up for mating or due to resource constraints like grazing and seasonal water construction.