thomas pendrake Posted December 21, 2014 Report Share Posted December 21, 2014 I have just become aware of a study about the language of a species of monkey in Sierra Leone, the Campbell's monkey (Ceropithecus campbellii. It seems that this particular monkey actually has a grammar and words whose meaning can vary from one area to another. They have a limited number of sounds , which they concatenate to form words and sentences to convey specific meanings. ]http://www.scientificamerican.com/http://www.pnas.org/content/106/51/22026.fullarticle/monkey-see-monkey-speak-video/] to form words and sentences to convey specific meanings. http://www.scientificamerican.com/http://www.pnas.org/content/106/51/22026.fullarticle/monkey-see-monkey-speak-video/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas pendrake Posted December 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2014 I apologize for the way the hyperlinks posted above. The first http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/monkey-see-monkey-speak-video/ is for an article in Scientific American. The second http://www.pnas.org/content/106/51/22026.full is for an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.The linguists involved in the study see it as a significant contribution to the understanding of the development of language by humans. I include all species of humans both extant and extinct.This still looks wrong. I don't understand how the hyperlink function works on this forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dora M Posted December 23, 2014 Report Share Posted December 23, 2014 How interesting. I have read about monkeys who can communicate with humans, using certain signs and noises. I have also read about parrots who have been taught to talk and express their feelings. I have no doubt that we can learn to communicate with all animals, without them having to acquire our language or sign systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muthoni Posted January 15, 2015 Report Share Posted January 15, 2015 That is interesting to learn. We have so many similarities with monkeys that it would be awesome if we could have a language that we both understood. The world keeps discovering amazing things as we go along. I enjoyed reading this thread because it shows the unlimited possibilities that are not yet discovered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lushlala Posted January 24, 2015 Report Share Posted January 24, 2015 Interesting, if a tad weird! The thing with monkeys is that they are very intelligent and are very much like humans. I've been around them and they display many human-like behaviour, so this is not at all surprising to me. I doubt they'll ever be able to speak and articulate words like we do, that'd be a bit of a stretch LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trellum Posted January 24, 2015 Report Share Posted January 24, 2015 It's so interesting, but I have always believed that most species have their own language and can actually communicate with each other the same way we do. It's just we are not trained to recognize the differences between all those sounds, but I can imagine how interesting would be if humans could actually learn to speak an animal language! I can only imagine! So fascinating! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elles-belles Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Oh wow, this is very interesting! These monkey's must have a high IQ and seem to be rather emotionally intelligent too! I had actually never seen research done along this topic! Thanks for the share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
languagelearner Posted February 12, 2015 Report Share Posted February 12, 2015 This is super interesting! Now if only I could train my cat to talk... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elenamarie Posted February 26, 2015 Report Share Posted February 26, 2015 Monkeys are very smart creatures. If I'm not mistaken chimpanzees are the smartest animal on the planet. That's truly amazing. They are very adaptable and can learn sign language. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dropthegigawatt Posted February 27, 2015 Report Share Posted February 27, 2015 Monkeys have always been my favorite animal for reasons such as this! Such brilliant creatures, and it's probably because they're so similar to us that we find them so interesting.Planet of the Apes... anyone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baburra Posted February 27, 2015 Report Share Posted February 27, 2015 Very interesting. I'm surprised it took us this long to have studies on it but I'm sure they have been working on this for decades. I also once came across a few videos of scientists teaching apes sign language and it made them able to communicate with humans on a basic level which I found very interesting, but I think this is much more so because it delves into their native behavior instead of an acquired one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidney Posted March 23, 2015 Report Share Posted March 23, 2015 I'm not surprised by this discovery, because monkeys are very intelligent animals. I think their language is also like our language and it's quite varied because they use many words as compared to dogs and cats that are only limited to a simple "arf" and "meow". If we humans can understand what every word meant through diligent research then it would be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VNtomboy Posted March 23, 2015 Report Share Posted March 23, 2015 That would definitely be interesting if it were true. You have to remember that scientists can be biased in these experiments because they WANT it to be true. I'm not saying that they falsified data, since I do think all animals have an unique way of communicating so it's entirely possible that they developed a language with proper structure and grammar, but let's not be too quick to jump on board the bandwagon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas pendrake Posted March 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2015 Monkeys are very smart creatures. If I'm not mistaken chimpanzees are the smartest animal on the planet. That's truly amazing. They are very adaptable and can learn sign language.Hopefully, humans are the smartest animals on the planet, but I suspect that some cetaceans may actually be more intelligent than chimps. Bonobos are probably smarter than chimps. Some whales are known to recite tales that are comparable in information content to human novels, but we are unable to decipher them (we can use information theory to measure the amount of information ). Look for "songs of the Humpback Whale". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas pendrake Posted March 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2015 That would definitely be interesting if it were true. You have to remember that scientists can be biased in these experiments because they WANT it to be true. I'm not saying that they falsified data, since I do think all animals have an unique way of communicating so it's entirely possible that they developed a language with proper structure and grammar, but let's not be too quick to jump on board the bandwagonHaving read the article, I think that it is clear that this study was not based on a rationalistic but rather an empirical approach. If you don't understand the difference, rationalism is based of pre-conceived a priori concepts, wheras empiricism relies on testing the a prioriconcepts against reality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sillylucy Posted March 23, 2015 Report Share Posted March 23, 2015 That is very fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing that! I have always wanted to study primates and I am so impressed by how they communicate with each other. It is simply just amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosyrain Posted April 3, 2015 Report Share Posted April 3, 2015 Animals are fascinating creatures and I really do think the can start to pick up on human language if they are around humans enough. It may sound silly but I had a cat growing up that actually learned to pronounce the word "out" when she wanted to go outside. It was quite distinctive to the point where she pronounced the T sound. She would stand by the door and chant it over and over again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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