The sea cows went on schlooping and grazing and chomping in the
weed, and Kotick asked them questions in every language that he had
picked up in his travels: and the Sea People talk nearly as many
languages as human beings. But the Sea Cow did not answer, but Sea
Cow cannot talk. He has only six bones in his neck where he ought to
have seven, and they say under the sea that that prevents him from
speaking even to his companions; but, as you know, he has an extra
joint in his fore flipper, and by waving it up and down and about he
makes a sort of clumsy telegraphic code.“ from "The White Seal," The
Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling