Animal Communication:
the Ape language Controversy
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"While it remains true that only man develops
a language spontaneously, and that man is the only creature with
vocal linguistic skills, the results of ape language projects
over the last decade indicate that requisites to linguistic competence
are not uniquely human"(1)
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Can non-human primates communicate
with us? There seems little doubt that they can. There have
been many studies with gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos that
have shown us that there is a definite propensity to communicate.
Does this mean that they can acquire human language? That is the
question of the hour. This is the crux of an ongoing controversy.
Psychologists, linguists, and animal behaviourists as well as others have
expressed anywhere from agreement, to disbelief, to outrage! After
all, man is the only animal intelligent enough to have language!
Or are we?
Communication in the wild
Ape-Language Studies
My thoughts on the subject
Chimpanzee and Bonobo Links
Bibliography
(1) Progress is Ape Research pg. 75
