The Speech of MonkeysGarner, R. L. (Richard Lynch)
Science
The Speech of Monkeys
Garner, R. L. (Richard Lynch)
Monkeys; Sound production by animals; Speech
The sounds which monkeys make are voluntary, deliberate, and articulate.
They are always addressed to some certain individual with the evident
purpose of having them understood. The monkey indicates by his own acts
and the manner of delivery that he is conscious of the meaning which he
desires to convey through the medium of the sounds. They wait for and
expect an answer, and if they do not receive one they frequently repeat
the sounds. They usually look at the person addressed, and do not utter
these sounds when alone or as a mere pastime, but only at such times as
some one is present to hear them, either some person or another monkey.
They understand the sounds made by other monkeys of their own kind, and
usually respond to them with a like sound. They understand these sounds
when imitated by a human being, by a whistle, a phonograph, or other
mechanical devices, and this indicates that they are guided by the
sounds alone, and not by any signs, gestures, or psychic influence. The
same sound is interpreted to mean the same thing, and obeyed in the same
manner by different monkeys of the same species. Different sounds are
accompanied by different gestures, and produce different results under
the same conditions. They make their sounds with the vocal organs, and
modulate them with the teeth, tongue and lips, in the same manner that
man controls his vocal sounds. The fundamental sounds appear to be pure
vowels, but faint traces of consonants are found in many words,
especially those of low pitch; and since I have been able to develop
certain consonant sounds from a vowel basis, the conclusion forces
itself upon me that the consonant elements of human speech are developed
from a vowel basis. This opinion is further confirmed by the fact that
the sounds produced by the types of the animal kingdom lower than the
monkey, appear to be more like the sounds of pipe instruments; and as we
rise in the scale, the vocal organs appear to become somewhat more
complex, and capable of varying these sounds so as to give the effect of
consonants, which very much extends the vocal scope. The present state
of the speech of monkeys appears to have been reached by development
from a lower form. [Sidenote: EACH RACE HAS ITS PECULIAR TONGUE] Each
race or kind of monkey has its own peculiar tongue, slightly shaded
into dialects, and the radical sounds do not appear to have the same
meaning in different tongues. The phonetic character of their speech is
equally as high as that of children in a like state of mental
development; and seems to obey the same laws of phonetic growth, change,
and decay as human speech. It appears to me that their speech is capable
of communicating the ideas that they are capable of conceiving, and,
measured by their mental, moral, and social status, is as well developed
as the speech of man, measured by the same units. Strange monkeys of the
same species seem to understand each other at sight, whereas two monkeys
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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