Chimpanzees have their own language — and scientists just learned how they put "words" together

[Frank Robert]

The discovery of a chimp group's 390-word "language" has profound implications for the evolution of human speech.

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Few animals appear to be able to communicate with a range as complex and intricate as humans. Those language skills may exist in a limited capacity in our nearest evolutionary neighbors, the great apes, many of whom have been trained to communicate via sign language by human researchers. Yet while sign language is communicated physically, researchers did not believe that great apes possessed their own comparable, complex spoken language.

Until now, that is. A new study reveals that chimpanzees — or at least, a group of 46 chimpanzees at Taï National Park in the African country of Côte d'Ivoire — are capable of complex vocalizations far beyond what more pessimistic scientists thought was possible. Their "words" were not like human phonetic words, but a combination of chimpanzee sounds, which generally sound a bit like grunts and chirps to human ears. And the size of the chimp dictionary? Almost 400 words.

While the researchers cannot say how this vocal complexity compared with human language, "the flexibility we show in this paper occurs across their whole vocal repertoire. In other animals vocal sequence flexibility seems mainly limited to either alarm or mate attraction contexts. So in chimpanzees, we expect to find some interesting expansions of meaning."

"This line of research will help us understand how human language may have evolved."

 

[Norbert L]

In other animals vocal sequence flexibility seems mainly limited to either alarm or mate attraction contexts.

I'd like to see how they compare to other social species not mentioned, who are also not restricted to a vocal alarm and mate attraction context. Like crows and dolphins.

 

[RileyG]

Fascinating!

 

[Kylie]

Fascinating!

To coin a phrase.

 

[Gottservant]

Expressing different kinds of aggression, is hardly a facsimile of word for word human speech

I am not saying chimpanzees aren't interesting, but expecting them to model early humanity is too rich.

 

[Kylie]

I am not saying chimpanzees aren't interesting, but expecting them to model early humanity is too rich.

Why?

 

[Gottservant]

Why?

Because you are using words to characterise a relationship to aggression (in chimpanzees), as if fulfilling the antcipation of both words and aggression together is somehow more productive.

If I put big wheels on a car, does that mean the car travels faster as a rule? No.

 

[Kylie]

Because you are using words to characterise a relationship to aggression (in chimpanzees), as if fulfilling the antcipation of both words and aggression together is somehow more productive.

If I put big wheels on a car, does that mean the car travels faster as a rule? No.

Actually, if you put big wheels on a car and drive the axels at the same number of revolutions per minute, the car will travel faster. That's why the old Penny Farthing bicycles had such large front wheels.

 

[AV1611VET]

"This line of research will help us understand how human language may have evolved."

Well, that should cure cancer or world hunger, shouldn't it?

Or perhaps, if we break the code, we could show these chimps a video of Columbine, and they could tell us why their cousins went ape?

 

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

Well, that should cure cancer or world hunger, shouldn't it?

Or perhaps, if we break the code, we could show these chimps a video of Columbine, and they could tell us why their cousins went ape?

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

 

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

I think it is cool that this has been found since it does go a long way to explain intelligence in non-human animals.

 

[Bungle_Bear]

Well, that should cure cancer or world hunger, shouldn't it?

Why?

Or perhaps, if we break the code, we could show these chimps a video of Columbine, and they could tell us why their cousins went ape?

You wouldn't like the answer they'd give.

 

[hedrick]

Expressing different kinds of aggression, is hardly a facsimile of word for word human speech

I am not saying chimpanzees aren't interesting, but expecting them to model early humanity is too rich.

The paper says they didn’t try to assess what the sounds meant, so we don’t actually know what they talked about.

 

[SelfSim]

Do chimps just sorta sit down and 'talk' to eachother for no obvious reason?
Y'know .. like over a coffee or something?

 

[Kylie]

Well, that should cure cancer or world hunger, shouldn't it?

Or perhaps, if we break the code, we could show these chimps a video of Columbine, and they could tell us why their cousins went ape?

You are committing the Nirvana Fallacy, the idea that since studying the way chimps communicate won't stop school shootings or cure cancer, that it's worthless.

 

[AV1611VET]

You are committing the Nirvana Fallacy, the idea that since studying the way chimps communicate won't stop school shootings or cure cancer, that it's worthless.

It would be poetic justice if the the chimps told the scientists studying them to take a hike.

 

[Tanj]

Expressing different kinds of aggression, is hardly a facsimile of word for word human speech

Have you read any posts at all on this site, your own included?

 

[Kylie]

It would be poetic justice if the the chimps told the scientists studying them to take a hike.

You keep using that phrase as though wielding it gives you like a +5 on damage to your opponent's argument or something. It doesn't.

 

[AV1611VET]

You keep using that phrase as though wielding it gives you like a +5 on damage to your opponent's argument or something. It doesn't.

How about I change: SCIENCE CAN TAKE A HIKE to:

THE APPLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC PARADIGMS TO THE POINT BEING ADDRESSED IS NONAPPLICABLE?

 

[Homeowner]

It would be poetic justice if the the chimps told the scientists studying them to take a hike.

I think even the chimps have overgrown that phase of their evolution.