The Freefall webcomic explains the Bowman's Wolves speech by saying they use ventriloquism techniques to make the sounds a dog mouth can't. If we're discussing whether furries could speak English, I think this is at least a partial solution. If we're talking a naturally-developed language, I believe an animal-based species would include more body language. Yes, I know body language is important to human communication, but could something like tail posture be used to modify the meaning of a word? Would it be practical for a species intelligent enough to use a spoken language?
