Zoeglossia is a neologistic poetic term describing verse that gives voice to non-human animals or animates the natural world through imagined speech, translating instinct, behavior, or ecological presence into lyrical utterance; derived from Greek “zoe” (life) and “glossa” (tongue), zoeglossia challenges anthropocentrism by constructing interspecies dialogues or ventriloquizing creatures—from birds to insects to trees—to foster ecological empathy and reimagine language as a shared, animate medium, as practiced in the bestiaries of Marianne Moore, the whale songs of Heathcote Williams, or contemporary eco-poets who listen for the “tongues” of the more-than-human world.

Speaking in animal sounds or voices; linguistic phenomenon explored in poetry. Related to Zoomorphism. May involve onomatopoeia or adopting animal perspective. Consider persona poems and ecopoetic approaches to nonhuman voices.