[Lalwendë]

There is also the possibility that it is individuals or groups of Men, Hobbits or Elves who understand the animals' language, rather than all animals speaking in the tongues of Men, Hobbits or Elves. Gandalf is able to speak with Shadowfax, and it is said that usually only the monarch of Rohan was able to ride Shadowfax, which suggests that not everyone can understand this 'animal', but some can. Perhaps only Gandalf and Theoden knew what he was 'saying', and indeed, knew how to communicate back with him.

Of course, we can communicate with familiar animals to a certain extent ourselves simply by coming to understand what their behaviour is telling us. If our cat scratches around the door then we know he wants to get outside, and we learn from experience that a wagging tail means we ought to leave him alone.

I'm trying to think of an instance where a creature other than a dragon physically speaks to more than one person. Huan? He is a creature from Valinor so quite obviously different in some way. The other instances are from The Hobbit as far as I can see, which is different in tone and more recognisably 'magical' than LotR, so speaking creatures might be expected. I wonder if there are more instances? If so, then it could be that those creatures are indeed communicating. I'm not including Ents as they were taught to speak by the Elves, and as such could it be said that they had an inherent language?