How Monkeys Talk

Author : Richard Garner
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781539368410
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (684 download)

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Download or read book The Speech of Monkeys written by Richard Garner and published by . This book was released on 2016-10-06 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Mr. Garner has gone to Africa with the phonograph with the intention of recording the voices of the gorilla and chimpanzee....The experiments made by Mr. Garner have been conducted in an ingenious and careful manner, and his results appear to be of value to science....Of much interest to the specialist as well as to the general reader." -The American Naturalist "Mr. Garner's work, so far as it has gone, is reliable...He is dealing with facts rather than fancies. We cannot but feel that the few facts which Mr. Garner has made out are well authenticated. It is very striking when we learn that Mr. Garner has so far discovered the speech of monkeys as to have learned the password into their good graces, and we cannot but be interested in his ability to attract the attention of monkeys by saying to them, in their language, the word which means food....Extremely interesting and suggestive." -Science "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. Each race has its peculiar tongue." -Richard Lynch Garner