Animals use sounds to communicate, just like humans. Could this be the origin of speech?
Zoologist Angela Dassow and computer scientist Michael Coen from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have acknowledged up to 26 sounds white-handed gibbons use for communication - from warnings that specific predators are coming to language used in intimate settings.
"We have recorded a father talking quietly to his daughter," said Michael Coen, according to The Daily Times.
The researchers work from the zoo in Racine, near Lake Michigan, where they can compare the language of white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar) to that of dolphins, rats and other great communicators, like humans.
After so many years of listening, Dassow knows what the gibbons are saying, according to New Scientist. Coen uses his knowledge of computers to express the sounds as algorithms, according to Earth Times.
Language is conceptual. It assigns a sound to an item or idea. Just as dolphins in Florida were taught the word for sargassum seaweed, according to Earth Times, gibbons are also able to transfer ideas into sounds with consistency and structure.
Gibbons can communicate what type of predator is approaching, how close the threat is and if it is moving or standing in one spot, according to The Daily Times.
With the recent habeas corpus cases regarding non-human persons, like Tommy the chimp, Sandra the orangutan and Tarzan-star Kiko the chimpanzee, could this mean that humans aren't as unique as we once thought?
