Is it possible to learn to speak the language of chimpanzees? (8 photos)

Is it possible to teach a monkey to talk to people? Yes, it is. Since the middle of the last century, we have been teaching primates to understand human speech, to respond with gestures or lexigrams - special icons, each of which denotes an action or a specific object.





Come on, tell me something so that I can understand you.

But one day, American blogger Xiaomanyc thought: "Is it possible to teach a person to speak to monkeys in their language?" As it turned out, it is also possible. But the devil is in the details.

As a test subject, he chose the most language-savvy person from his circle — himself. At the moment, Xiaomanyc has experience communicating in 60 languages. Even if he knows most of them only at a casual level, this is already an incredible achievement, which speaks of very decent abilities and great perseverance.



Mr. Polyglot, his wife and their child.

To communicate with monkeys, he went to the city of Des Moines (USA), where the center for the study of bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees) is located. Arriving there, the blogger received detailed instructions on communication from the center's employees, practiced on them, and went to establish contact with their charges. And he succeeded! The monkeys not only understood what he wanted to tell them, but also expressed surprise at the fact that the man was behaving just like a monkey. He attracted their attention with loud screams, showed his heels with teeth, and then even played tag!





Contact established!

And it would seem that the article can end here: the blogger did it, everyone is happy. His video has gained a ton of views — more than 8 million at the time of writing! The research center got a lot of publicity, and the monkeys got some unexpected entertainment. Everything is just great, if you don’t remember that their vocal signal system has not yet been deciphered.



That same duet of neighbors behind the wall who belt out songs until three in the morning.

Primates do not have language in the usual sense. The bonobos’ repertoire includes dozens of vocal commands, some of which they use in several situations at once, which hints to us at the polysemy of these “words”. Moreover, it has been recorded that common chimpanzees are able to combine sounds in different sequences, which is why old "words" acquire new meanings. But even professional researchers cannot yet understand and recognize what monkeys "talk" about.



It seems that they are starting to learn our language. It's time to confuse scientists!

But the gestural and non-verbal parts of the primate signaling system turned out to be much easier to understand. All because it is similar to ours. So much so that people without special education can understand monkeys!



High five is a universal gesture, understood regardless of the species!

Scientists conducted an experiment on a sample of more than 5,000 people. The subjects were shown a video where chimpanzees and bonobos used some gesture. The task was to guess what this gesture meant. Well, people recognized the general meaning in 50-75% of cases!



A smile is one of the few grimaces that is difficult to define. The fact is that chimpanzees can smile just like us. But at the same time, a grin that demonstrates a threat and anxiety will also look like a smile.



At the same time, a real smile in chimpanzees and humans is very similar! Scientists analyzed the facial expressions of chimpanzees during play and compared them with humans. As a result, they found six common key points for the manifestation of joy.

Therefore, when communicating with the bonobos, Xiaomanyc used almost exclusively gestures and non-verbal signals - grimaces, body position, etc. Yes, the monkeys really understood him, but it is impossible to call it full-fledged communication. In their eyes, a person looked like a friendly foreigner who asks for directions to a museum, using a couple of memorized words and international gestures. And whether full-fledged communication with monkeys is possible - only further study of their speech will show.