Chimposcole calls offer clues to the origins of human language

Spanish and Swahili in Finnish and Philippin, More than 7,000 languages are spoken around the world today. Humans are unique in that we are the only species known for using language. However, new research suggests that we may not be as unusual as such as before.

An article published in Scientific advances Describe the capacity of chimpanzees to create new meanings by combining calls – a technique not so different from the way we combine words to produce sentences. This discovery could have major implications on our understanding of the evolution of human language.

“Generating New or Combined Meanings by Combining Words is a hallmark of Human Language, and it is crucial to investigate where a similar capacity in our closest living room, chimpanzees and bonobos, in order to decipher the origins of Human Language,” Senior Author Catherine Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Said in A press release.

What is language?

Humans communicate orally by combining a relatively small number of sounds (or phonemes) to make words, which are once again combined to create sentences. The key to our ability to create almost endless sound sequences with an equally large number of meanings is our use of “combination mechanisms”.

These can be divided into two camps. The first, composition combinations, is when the meaning is derived from the composite parts of the sequence, as in the “the APE Va” sentence. The second non -compositional combination is when meaning is not linked to composite parts – think of the “Go Sine” idiom.

Other animals are known to combine sounds to create new meanings – Campbell monkeys, for example, precede alarm calls with “OO” sound to reduce their emergency. However, their ability to do so is relatively rudimentary and is often limited to specific situations, such as a predator meeting.

Learn more:: Chimpanzees, like humans, are fast wordors – with their hands

The complex language of chimpanzees

On the other hand, the calls of the chimpanzees seem remarkably complex. Analyzing thousands of vocalizations of 53 wild chimpanzees in Tai National Park, Côte d'Ivoire, the researchers identified 12 unique calls and 16 two -ball combinations. A more in -depth survey revealed that chimpanzees modify the meaning in four distinct ways, using compositional and non -compositional combinations.

The first adds meaning: if a means “food” and b means “rest”, AB means “feeding and resting”. The second clarifies the meaning: if a means “feed or travel” and B means “aggression”, AB means “travel”. The third allows chimpanzees to design new meanings via non -comparable combinations: if a “rest” and B means “affiliation”, AB means “nesting”. The fourth and last technique is the control effect, in which the sequence of calls has an impact on their global meaning, just like the way in which the order of words affects the meaning of the sentences.

“This changes the views of the last century, which considered that communication in the great apes was fixed and linked to the emotional states,” said Cédric Girard-Buttoz, the first author of the study, in a press release.

The origin of human language

The discovery not only offers a fascinating overview of the life of these great apes, but could help explain the development of human language. Researchers say that the complex combinatories observed in chimpanzees may have existed in the common ancestor that we share.

“Such a system in non -human animals has never been documented and can be transient between rudimentary systems and open systems like human language,” write the authors of the study.

The results reflect Recent research Analysis of bonobos calls, noting that they can also combine calls to create new meanings. As Girard-Buttoz points out, this suggests either “there is indeed something special in hominid communication” or “that we have also underestimated the complexity of communication in other animals”.

Learn more:: Bonobos communicate like humans, at least when it comes to combining calls

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Rosie McCall is an independent writer living in London. It has covered scientific and health subjects for publications, especially Iflscience, Newsweek, And Health.