There have been several attempts to teach animals language in the past. What we’ve learned is that some animals may actually have the capacity for language… but none have the speech capabilities that humans have. In humans, the larynx descends around the age of 2. This doesn’t happen with other primates. In the 1950s a chimpanzee (Vicky) was taught to speak, but she could only speak 4 words (Mama, Papa, cup, up) and they all sounded pretty much the same. Researchers finally realized that maybe it wasn’t stupidity that prevented animals from speaking languages – it was a physical barrier (the high larynx).

Koko is a lowland gorilla raised by Penny Patterson. Patterson was a graduate student at Stanford when she met and began to work with Koko. Koko is one of the only non-human primates who can "speak" decent Ameslan (American Sign Language). She’s part of the Gorilla Language Project; the project is the longest running inter-species communication project ever conducted.

If you believe the results (I do), they give us some incredible information about the intelligence of non-human primates. Koko can use at least 500 signs, and understands at least 1,000 signs. She can understand about 2,000 words of spoken English. Some people say that Koko is just signing for treats; however, all evidence seems to suggest that she actually understands what she is signing.

There are a few key things to note about Koko’s language ability. She has the ability to do object naming. This means she could create phrases for objects if she didn’t know their names. A lighter was a "bottle match", and her pet kitten was "All Ball". All Ball was a present for Koko – unfortunately, All Ball was killed by a car just a few months after Koko got her. Koko was devastated, and understood when Patterson relayed what had happened. She cried when she was alone.

Koko can lie. She can also use displacement (speaking about the past or the future – what has happened, what might happen). These are both really important in determining whether a creature truly has the capacity for language.

Patterson brought in another gorilla, Michael, to be Koko’s mate. It didn’t work. Their relationship was that of siblings, not sweethearts. In fact, Koko’s nickname for Michael was "stinky devil" – certainly not an intimate nickname. Michael passed away in 2000 (Koko is still going strong; she was born in 1971).

Koko’s IQ has been estimated at anywhere between 70-95. Considering the fact that the average human IQ is 100, these results are quite shocking. One of the questions that Koko got wrong on the test was this: Where do you go when it rains? The correct answer was supposed to be house. Koko picked a tree… Now – is that really wrong? The fact that she can do so well on a very culturally biased IQ test (biased towards humans) is so surprising to me.

Have you heard of Koko? What do you think about non-human primates and language? Do you think they can really understand and use it? Or are they just faking to please their teachers?

In the wild, animals can communicate with different sounds and movement. Honeybees even have a way to convey where the best flowers and pollen are. Dogs can learn their names, and so can some cats. I think my cats know their names (Couscous and Bo), but they like to annoy me so they pretend not to. They certainly listen and come when I tap on the food can.

What would a human life be like if we were limited to such basic communication? What if all of our correspondence was so simple that we could only express a few emotions and a few basic wants and needs (food, water, shelter)? This is probably how our language started out thousands (millions?) of years ago.

Today there are somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 different languages spoken in the world. There are many more that are now extinct. Every single language (ever!) has been based on a limited number of sounds that all humans are capable of making. Now, an interesting thing to note is that after a certain age (usually around 2 years), it’s harder for the brain to develop synapses that will recognize certain sounds. In other words, if you aren’t exposed to certain sounds regularly by the time you’re 2 years old, you might lose the ability (or just make it really really hard to learn) to make certain sounds or even distinguish between certain sounds (example – for native Japanese speakers, the distinction between <l> and <r> is really hard).

So linguistics is a subfield of anthropology. It’s a way of studying cultures and exploring how culture is learned and taught. Without language, we would have trouble communicating our culture and passing us on – this is part of what makes us human. Language, culture, communication… I find it fascinating to study what really sets humans apart from the animals that share most of our DNA.

I wrote a post here about how cooking has influenced humans & how it has helped to define and impact our evolution. If you liked this post you’d probably enjoy that, too!

Is it easy? No. English is one of the most complex languages to learn. It’s not a very logical language. Our spelling system is crazy and so is our (very irregular) grammar. It’s not considered the most beautiful language, either. If there is one thing to take away from this, it’s that languages do not thrive because they are “perfect” in any way – they thrive mostly due to cultural (political, economical, religious, etc…) reasons.

The Arts & Amusement.

• People read for fun. There have been many prolific and talented English writers. A lot of contemporary music is in English. Movies, games, advertising, computer programs, plays, and other forms of entertainment are often available first (or only) in English.

Politics & History.

• Some of the most imperialistic countries were English speaking: mainly, Britain and America. Britain colonized most of Africa and India, and with that colonization came the spread of the English language. When the government, schools, or religious bodies in a country speak a certain language (English), the language will permeate through all aspects of a society.

Academia.

• The majority of scientific and technical information is available in English. Did you know that 80% of the information stored in electronic retrieval systems is in English? [Source: Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language.] In many parts of the world (where lesser-known languages are spoken), the only way to read famous pieces of literature is to read them in English (Shakespeare, the Bible, etc…).

Simplicity.

• This is a sort of chicken-egg situation. It seems like many people know English, so more and more people learn it to be able to communicate easily…

Communication.

• With so many languages to choose from to learn, people want to pick the one that will be most useful. English is used as a communicating language – meaning that two speakers of other languages (say Swahili and German) may use English as a common language to speak in.

Before English, the prevailing language was Latin. We know how that ended up! In the coming centuries we’ll see if English holds its ground.

What would you pick as your second language? I’ve studied Italian, French, and German… I’m best at Italian. I want to learn Japanese and Spanish.