Talking animal

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For talking animals in folklore and storytelling, see Talking animals in fiction.
"Talking Cat" redirects here. For the 2013 film, see A Talking Cat!?!

A talking animal or speaking animal is any non-human animal that can produce sounds or gestures resembling those of a

human language.[1] Several species or groups of animals have developed forms of communication which superficially resemble verbal language, however, these usually are not considered a language because they lack one or more of the defining characteristics, e.g. grammar, syntax, recursion, and displacement. Researchers have been successful in teaching some animals to make gestures similar to sign language,[2][3] although whether this should be considered a language has been disputed.[4]

Possibility of animal language

The horse Clever Hans performing

The term refers to animals who can imitate (though not necessarily understand) human speech. Parrots, for example, repeat phrases of human speech through exposure.[5] There were parrots that learnt to use words in proper context and had meaningful dialogues with humans. Alex, a grey parrot, understood questions about color, shape, size, number etc. of objects and would provide a one-word answer to them.[6] He is also documented to have asked an existential question.[7] Another grey parrot, N'kisi, could use 950 words in proper context, was able to form sentences and even understood the concept of grammatical tense.[8]

Researchers have attempted to teach

deaf people. In this regard, there are now numerous studies and an extensive bibliography.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]

Reported cases by species

Birds

Main articles:
Bird vocalisation and Talking bird
  • Alex, a grey parrot researched and trained by Dr. Irene Pepperberg, demonstrated knowledge of cca. 100 words, understood the meaning of several types of questions and was documented to ask one question about himself.[6][7]
  • N'kisi, a grey parrot, knows over 900 words, can form sentences and even understands grammatical tense.[8]

Dogs

"Talking dog" redirects here. For other uses, see Talking dog (disambiguation).
Main article: Dog communication
See also: Hundesprechschule Asra

An owner hears a dog making a sound that resembles a phrase says the phrase back to the dog, who then repeats the sound and is rewarded with a treat. Eventually the dog learns a modified version of the original sound. Dogs have limited vocal imitation skills, so these sounds usually need to be shaped by selective attention and social reward.[19]

  • A dog on America's Funniest Home Videos named Fluffy, made noises that to some viewers resembled "I want my momma" after being asked "Do you want your momma?".[citation needed] Other videos showed other dogs making noises which to some viewers resembling "Run around", "I want it", "I love momma" and "Hello".
  • Odie, a pug who produced noises resembling "I love you" on demand, made appearances on several television shows.[20]
  • Paranormal researcher Charles Fort wrote in his book Wild Talents (1932) of several alleged cases of dogs that could speak English. Fort took the stories from contemporary newspaper accounts.
  • In 1715 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz published an account of his encounter with a talking dog that could pronounce about 30 words.[21]
  • Don, a German pointer born around the beginning of the 20th century, was a dog that was reputed to be able to pronounce a couple of words in German and became a vaudeville sensation as a result. Although most scientists at the time dismissed Don's capabilities, the author Jan Bondeson puts forward an argument that Don was genuinely capable of limited human speech and criticises the tests that were performed on Don at the time as having serious methodological flaws.[21]
  • In 1959 a German sheepdog by the name of Corinna living in Prague spontaneously developed a capability for limited human speech. According to the zoologist Hermann Hartwigg, published under the pseudonym 'Hermann Dembeck', Corinna 'holds the record in modern times for its talking prowess'.[22]

Cats

Great apes

Main article: Great ape language

human speech is rare although some of them have attempted to do so by often watching and mimicking the gestures, and voices from their human trainers. Apparently, human voice control in non-human great apes
could derive from an evolutionary ancestor with similar voice control capacities. These include chimpanzees and orangutans.

  • Johnny (1944–2007), was a chimpanzee that could also clearly say the word "mama".
  • In 1962, Bioparco di Roma, a chimpanzee named Renata could clearly say the word "mama" when praised by her trainer.
  • Today show
    , who was known to say the word "mama".
  • Viki was a chimpanzee that could voice four words:
    • mama
    • papa
    • up
    • cup
  • Tilda (born 1965, Borneo), is an orangutan who responds to her keepers in a human-like manner e.g. pointing to the food and repeating the word "Cologne Zoo" by controlling her lips and tongue, as well as manipulating her vocal chords. To do this, she clicks her tongue to produce various tones of her voice, and grumbles in a way that is comparable to humans making vowel sounds. She only does this during feeding time when she wants to attract her keepers' attention. This was mainly due to her former time being taught by a human trainer while she was in the entertainment business.
  • Rocky (born September 25, 2004), resident of the Indianapolis Zoo, is an orangutan that can say the word "hi". He was the very first ape to produce sounds similar to words in a "conversational context". These sounds have been recorded in use and can be seen here. In the video, Rocky is participating in a training session wherein he is being asked to produce vocals outside of the typical orangutan "vocabulary."[25] The Indianapolis Zoo made a public statement about Rocky's vocalizations and their implications for current and future studies.

Elephants

  • Batyr (1969–1993), an elephant from Kazakhstan, was reported to have a vocabulary of more than 20 phrases. Recordings of Batyr saying "Batyr is good", "Batyr is hungry", and words such as "drink" and "give" were played on Kazakh state radio in 1980.[26]
  • Kosik (born 1990) is an elephant able to imitate Korean words.[27]

Cetaceans

Main article: Whale vocalization

Some of the species of

beluga whales and orca can imitate the patterns of human speech.[28]

  • NOC, a captive beluga whale in the United States Navy's Cold Ops program, could mimic some words well enough to confuse Navy divers on at least one occasion.[29]
  • John C. Lilly's assistant Margaret Howe trained a dolphin named Peter to produce several words, including a credible "Mar-ga-ret".
  • Wikie is an orca that can say "hello", "goodbye", and "Amy" (her trainer).

Others

In fiction

Main article: Talking animals in fiction

See also

References

  1. ^ "Can any animals talk and use language like humans?". BBC. 16 February 2015.
  2. ISBN 978-1-4419-3400-0
  3. ^ Hu, Jane C. (Aug 20, 2014). "What Do Talking Apes Really Tell Us?". Slate. Retrieved Jan 19, 2020.
  4. ISSN 0036-861X
    .
  5. ^ Price, Hannah (September 15, 2011). "Birds of a feather talk together". Australian Geographic. Archived from the original on September 23, 2011.
  6. ^
    S2CID 177171845
    . Retrieved Jan 19, 2020.
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-99940-31-81-8
    .
  8. ^ a b Kirby, Alex (26 January 2004). "Parrot's oratory stunts scientists". BBC News.
  9. ^ F.X. Plooij (1978). "Some basic traits of language in wild chimpanzees?". In A. Lock (ed.). Action, Gesture and Symbol. New York: Academic Press.
  10. ^ T. Nishida (1968). The social group of wild chimpanzees in the Mahali Mountains. pp. 167–224. {{cite book}}: |magazine= ignored (help)
  11. ^ D. Premack (1985). 'Gavagai!' or the future of the animal language controversy. pp. 207–296. {{cite book}}: |magazine= ignored (help)
  12. PMID 5793972. {{cite book}}: |magazine= ignored (help
    )
  13. ^ R.A. Gardner; B.T. Gardner; T.E. Van Cantfort (1989). Teaching Sign Language to Chimpanzees. Albany: SUNY Press.
  14. ^ H.S. Terrace (1979). Nim: A chimpanzee who learned Sign Language. New York: Knopf.
  15. S2CID 579851. {{cite book}}: |magazine= ignored (help
    )
  16. PMID 2428917. {{cite book}}: |magazine= ignored (help
    )
  17. ^ F.G. Patterson; E. Linden (1981). The education of Koko. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
  18. ^ H.L. Miles (1990). "The cognitive foundations for reference in a signing orangutan". In S.T. Parker; K.R. Gibson (eds.). "Language" and intelligence in monkeys and apes: Comparative Developmental Perspectives. Cambridge University Press. pp. 511–539.
  19. ^ Adler, Tina (June 10, 2009). "Fact or Fiction: Dogs Can Talk". Scientific American. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  20. ^ "the talking pug". Retrieved 2008-12-11.
  21. ^
    ISBN 9781445609645
    – via Google Books.
  22. ISBN 9780800883409
    .
  23. ^ https://www.homevideolicensing.com/video/128556
  24. ^ Oh Long Johnson... - talking cat. June 11, 2006.[dead YouTube link]
  25. ^ Saini, Angela. “The Orangutan Who Speaks like a Human.” BBC Earth, BBC Earth, 6 Apr. 2017, www.bbcearth.com/blog/?article=the-orangutan-who-speaks-like-a-human.
  26. ^ "Conversing cows and eloquent elephants". fortunecity.com. Archived from the original on July 24, 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-11.
  27. ^ "Kosik, Talking Elephant, Attracts Researchers And Tourists In South Korea". Huffington Post. October 11, 2010. Retrieved December 23, 2012.
  28. ^ "The Story of One Whale Who Tried to Bridge the Linguistic Divide Between Animals and Humans". Smithsonian Magazine. June 2014.
  29. ^ "Study: Male beluga whale mimics human speech". 22 October 2012. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014.
  30. ^ "Hoover, the Talking Seal". Neaq.org. New England Aquarium. Archived from the original on 2012-02-14. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
  31. ^ Josiffe, Christopher (January 2011). "Gef the Talking Mongoose". Fortean Times. Dennis Publishing. Archived from the original on March 18, 2012. Retrieved December 23, 2012.
  32. ISBN 978-0-8166-4736-1
    . Retrieved 19 August 2013.
  33. ^ Is This Goat Talking? | Yahoo News
    In August, Lyndsey Hyde of Tennessee posted a video to Vine featuring a goat that sounds like it is saying "What? What? What?" The 6-second clip went viral with more than 7 million views on the video-sharing app.

External links

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