“And people call it what?”
People call the dawn sun-rise but that doesn’t make it an accurate refelction of what’s really happening.
“If a parrot can imitate sounds that can be considered *talking*, for lack of a better word,....”
There isn’t a lack of a better word, imitate is much more appropriate. The parrot doesn’t talk, it imitates sounds. Parrots can imitate a clock chime or a phone ring. Is it talking to the things in your house?
“...how do you know that some species of reptile could not have possessed the same ability?”
Well, no snakes identified by science to date show any anatomical features that would allow speech (or accurate imitation of sound) nor do any remains of earlier snakes. So if you’re going to make extraordinary claims, it is you that needs to provide some evidence to support them. Merely pointing out that another species can do so is like saying that because some animals have wings and can fly, there is a good case to support the existance Pegasus.
Nevertheless, parrots and cockatiels communicate...you can parse words and call it talking or not, but it’s clearly not at all merely imitations as you assert either...
Moreover they communicate verbally with each other in their own language...as they do with us in ours.
I visit a place with a community cockatiel named Max...cool bird...says lot of things and not just merely imitations either.
He whistles at friends he’s made...and since no one is allowed to feed him, it’s not out of coersion/reward, etc.
Granted it’s not a giant vocabularly but he says certain things at certain times to certain people. It’s not all just simply regurgitations.