It has been noted by many people working with apes in research or zoo or refuge environments that apes do indeed have some sort of vocal communication. Often, this has even been noted by people working with apes and human languages (ie ASL, &c.). But nobody has really seemed to take a passing interest in it, as far as I can find on the Internet and the university library. I figured that perhaps somebody here might know something more about this. Does anybody?
They have also discovered that the "beating on the chest" is actually more than just for domination or intimidation. The rythyms and beats are a form of communication. I saw it on TV, so I dont have a link.
Yep, I've heard that too. Have you seen chimpanzees hunt monkeys? Before the hunt the oldest male appears to just be screaming and pounding tree trunks with his feet randomly, but then the whole clan activates a well thought out and well planned miltaryesque hunting strategy and it becomes obvious the leader was actually giving his troop orders and intricate instructions. Each member has a task that they perform perfectly and their hunting success percentage is greater than just about any other animal. Humans have a way of testing an animal's intelligence by using human tests. Chimpanzees share 98% of our DNA and look how different their intelligence works, imagine how different a dolphin's intelligence type really is. They test animals by seeing if they can do tasks we tell them to do and come to the conclusion that they are "fairly intelligent" , I'd bet money that the dolphins and apes think our tests are hilariously pathetic and demeaning. You can almost see that on a chimps face when you see one pressing a shape on a touchscreen and recieving fruit through a little chute, Its face says "aaaahhh okPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image! pffftPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!". Damn, we're so lame, its embarrassingPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
east african vervet monkey back in the late sixties there was apparently a study done on a species of monkey in east africa which identified (at least) three distinct calls that signified different dangers such as snake, lion and eagle. the people doing the study recorded the monkey calls onto tape and played them back through loudspeaker to see what the monkeys would do. like when they played a snake alarm call, the monkeys all looked at the ground near them before running up the tree. it was also discovered that the older monkeys had calls distinguishing between different species of eagles. this is from my first year linguistics course las semester, and i've already forgotten much of it to provide a link. but most books on language origin theories will probably refer to it.
Researchers are quite aware that monkeys are capable of language. I think where the research drops off is the degree to which they can learn it. Monkeys aren't physically capable of creating most human phonemes, their throat structure isn't as advanced. In fact monkeys do better with sign language, and this has been done to a fairly successful degree. Even signing monkeys have problems with certain grammatical nuances that most languages entail. Bonobos chimps are a degree better than other monkeys, but even they have troubles.
