True Language: Language is any method by which information is exchanged. But true language is the means by which a range of information is conveyed, including the expression of abstract ideas and past and future thoughts and actions. Most animals communicate, not through language, but by instinctual behaviors that convey messages to others.

Talking Animals: Animals make a wide variety of sounds, from the musical song of a bird to the howl of the wolf, to the contented purr of a cat. While they are unable to talk in the sense that humans do, they do communicate with sound in a way that is understood only by other members of their own species. Still, researchers have been unable to translate individual animal sounds in a framework that can be called true language.

Vocal Vervet Monkeys: The vervet monkey is one of the most vocal of all animals. It has developed three or four distinct sounds that it uses to identify different predators to fellow members of a troop. If a monkey spots an eagle, it gives the appropriate warning call, which makes the monkeys in the trees drop to the ground. A different sound is used to communicate the presence of a leopard. It is believed that the distinct sounds the vervet monkeys make are learned, rather than instinctual. Young vervets often make the wrong calls, and different troops use their own sounds for the same predator.

Vocabularies: Although humans often attribute subtle and complicated meanings to the various sounds animals make, most animal communication is actually simple in context. Animal communication is most often used in situations where the attraction of a male or the defense of territory or food from rivals is involved. Furthermore, such communication is an instinctive form of behavior rather than a learned skill, and not a sign of the use of true language.

So, although every dog makes a different sound when it barks, the bark is simply used to announce its presence to a mate or as a warning to a rival or intruder. The message is uncomplicated, and the ability to bark is inherited. A few animals do show signs of sophistication in their use of language. Some birds use a whistle as a warning that a predatory hawk is near, but use a remarkably different series of chirps to rally a group to defend itself against less dangerous predators.

Key Facts:
Talking Chimps: Although the chimpanzee is man's closest relative and uses many of the same facial expressions, wild chimpanzees do not appear to use language as we understand it. Still, chimpanzees raised in captivity have been taught to use sign and symbolic languages, proving that they have the capacity to communicate through language. The first chimpanzee to be taught sign language was Washoe, who, in the 1960s, was raised in a human environment and taught to communicate using American Sign Language. She eventually learned 160 different word signs and proved capable of conveying ideas with word combinations. One day, surprised to see a toy doll placed in her cup, she signed her most famous phrase, “baby in my drink.”

Other researchers have used new artificial languages in similar studies. Two chimps, Austin and Sherman, were taught to use Yerkish – a language substitutes symbols for words. When given suitable linguistic tools, then, chimpanzees demonstrate that they can express ideas and even grasp some concept of grammar. While they may not possess a language in the wild, it does appear that chimpanzees can learn to communicate through language.

Did You Know:
Traveling through channels in the ocean floor 2,000-4,000 feet beneath the water’s surface, the sounds of the humpback whale are carried from one side of the Pacific to the other.
Few animals use more than a dozen calls; a human vocabulary may contain 40,000 words.
Some scientists believe that the best example of a true animal language is the dance of the honeybees, by which they communicate information about food sources.

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