Boom! Hok! A Monkey Language Is Deciphered

[steven johnson]

Dolphins, whales and monkeys must consider humans stupid since they can't understand the stimplest things that are said to them.

Having spent months recording the monkeys’ calls in response to both natural and artificial stimuli, a group led by Klaus Zuberbühler of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland argues that the Campbell’s monkeys have a primitive form of syntax.

“Krak” is a call that warns of leopards in the vicinity. The monkeys gave it in response to real leopards and to model leopards or leopard growls broadcast by the researchers. The monkeys can vary the call by adding the suffix “-oo”: “krak-oo” seems to be a general word for predator, but one given in a special context — when monkeys hear but do not see a predator, or when they hear the alarm calls of another species known as the Diana monkey.

The “boom-boom” call invites other monkeys to come toward the male making the sound. Two booms can be combined with a series of “krak-oos,” with a meaning entirely different to that of either of its components. “Boom boom krak-oo krak-oo krak-oo” is the monkey’s version of “Timber!” — it warns of falling trees.

The meaning of monkey calls was first worked out with vervet monkeys, which have distinct alarm calls for each of their three main predators: the martial eagle, leopards and snakes. But the vervets did not combine their alarm calls to generate new meanings, unlike human words that can be combined in an infinite number of different sentences.

Boom! Hok! A Monkey Language Is Deciphered

[n2doc]

1. But they still don't have souls or go to heaven

Jeebus told me so!

[jgraz]

2. Lucky monkeys

Who'd want to spend eternity with a bunch of boring-ass, sanctimonious Xtians?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

3. that's right!! And

we can use them and their animal friends and everythin however we want, as much as we want, cuz gawd will be happy to make more for us, anytime we want. As long aw we flatter him, that is.

[Odin2005]

4. Nitpick: That's communication, not language in the struct sense.

"But the vervets did not combine their alarm calls to generate new meanings, unlike human words that can be combined in an infinite number of different sentences."

No combinatorial relationships between symbols = Not language.

[Posteritatis]

5. Still the first case of syntax observed in nonhuman communication. (nt)