These two spells,are they dependent on a shared language to allow communication?
I would like to use them to talk to friendly animals.
You link your mind to the target's mind and mentally impart to that target an amount of information in an instant that could otherwise be communicated in 10 minutes.
With touches to the targets’ foreheads, you bring them into mental communion. The targets can share thoughts and experiences, but not words. When one target attempts to Recall Knowledge, the other can Aid the first target’s skill check, using any Lore skill (even if that Lore wouldn’t normally apply) without having made any preparations to Aid.
Both of these spells speak about mental communication, so no, you don't need a shared language. Whether or not "friendly animals" have any relevant ability with a lore skill is another, separate question.
FWIW, you didn't need to crosspost to the advice forum. This is a rules question.
Someone else might have cross posted it, but I didn't even know I could.
I imagine any animal might know Lore about themselves,but I'm just interested in communicating with a familiar, bonded animal, trained animal or animal companion.
Being able to tell an animal what you want of it,or ask it what it needs/wants etc, has nonmechanical advantages.
Talking to animals is harder than it was in previous editions.
If one could get Join Pasts and Reach Spell,talking to animals would become any easy all day affair.
That is nearly the equivalent of the 5th level gnome ancestry feat,Animal Elocutionist.
Mindlink is clearly more limited in usage, but it is core.