Owls have tongues just like we do, but you may not spend much time thinking about the purposes times serve. Like most other body parts, owls have specific adaptations that help it to survive.
In birds, tongue shape is determined by the tongue bone, or hyoid. The shape and structure of the hyoid is different between species, based on their diet. Catching small insects vs live mammals or reptiles the same size as the bird will have very different requirements.
You also have a hyoid bone, though in most mammals it mainly provides support for the surrounding muscles for the tongue and mouth cavity.
Owl tongues are not very strong, and can’t be used to manipulate food. They have mucus membranes to both protect the tongue from getting scratched and to protect against bacteria, and well as to help their food slide down. The tongue is able to retract further back into the skull to also help swallow. A brush like tip helps to grab food passed to the mouth, and backwards facing barbed papillae also direct food down the throat. There is also a V shaped crest at the back of the tongue (keratinized in some species) for the same purpose.
Everything is designed to get food to go in quickly. As owls can’t chew, things need to go down quickly and smoothly and not hang up on the throat, since the swallow bones, feathers, and other things that would definitely be cotoking hazards for other animals.
I couldn’t find anything specific to owls, but birds do have taste buds. Humans have around 10,000, but birds have from 24 (chicken) to 400 (parrot).
Though there is certainly some likelihood of the tongue having an affect on vocalization, it is thought to be limited.
This is the research paper I used for much of this. It’s 24 pages , but mostly pictures. It covers many species of birds other than owls so you can see other fascinating adaptations. It’s written in very easy to understand wording, so it’s not a bad read at all!