The Professor’s story is briefly that having acquired this language,
which nobody that has witnessed his experiments will call in question,
he went back to the jungle for a week, living all the time in the
ordinary explorer’s cage of the Blik pattern. Towards the very end of
the week a big male gorilla came by, and the Professor attracted it by
the one word “Food.” It came, he says, close to the cage, and seemed
prepared to talk but became very angry on seeing a man there, and beat
the cage and would say nothing. The Professor says that he asked it
why it was angry. He admits that he had learned no more than forty
words of this language, but believes that there are perhaps thirty
more. Much however is expressed, as he says, by mere intonation.
Anger, for instance; and scores of allied words, such as terrible,
frightful, kill, whether noun, verb or adjective, are expressed, he
says, by a mere growl. Nor is there any word for “Why,” but queries
are signified by the inflexion of the voice.
When he asked it why it was angry the gorilla said that men killed
him, and added a noise that the professor said was evidently meant to
allude to guns. The only word used, he says, in this remark of the
gorilla’s was the word that signified “man.” The sentence as
understood by the professor amounted to “Man kill me. Guns.” But the
word “kill” was represented simply by a snarl, “me” by slapping
its chest, and “guns” as I have explained was only represented by a
noise. The Professor believes that ultimately a word for guns may be
evolved out of that noise, but thinks that it will take many
centuries, and that if during that time guns should cease to be in
use, this stimulus being withdrawn, the word will never be evolved at
all, nor of course will it be needed.
The Professor tried, by evincing interest, ignorance, and incredulity,
and even indignation, to encourage the gorilla to say more; but to his
disappointment, all the more intense after having exchanged that one
word of conversation with one of the beasts, the gorilla only repeated
what it had said, and beat on the cage again. For half an hour this
went on, the Professor showing every sign of sympathy, the gorilla
raging and beating upon the cage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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