For the information of the reader Dr. Doolittle: researchers have discovered that the sounds made by the baboons can be considered language buds and are used for complex communication between the monkeys. Let's hear
Zvi Atzmon, Galileo
White-nosed monkey (Cercopithecus nictitans) is a species of tree-dwelling monkey that lives in the forests of Central and West Africa. The Gonons live in groups; Each group has 13 to 22 individuals, of which 6 adult male, 9 to XNUMX adult females and the rest are young. In response to a disturbance, the adult male utters one of two types of sounds: a sound that sounds a bit like a knock, similar to the syllable heck (click to hear), and a more prolonged and "softer" sound, which sounds like a phew (click to hear).
Although, during the morning grazing and the evening journey to the sleeping sites, the male probably also makes these sounds spontaneously, but usually these sounds serve to warn the group against the approach of a predator, and even constitute an attempt to drive it away; a leopard that has become aware that it has been discovered tends to leave the group and try to satisfy its hunger elsewhere. The heck sounds are made mainly to indicate the approach of the crowned eagle – a large raptor whose main diet is carrion, while the peewee sounds – to indicate the presence of a leopard in the vicinity.
And here, researchers Kate Arnold (Arnold) and Klaus Zuberbuhler (Zuberbuhler) from the Department of Psychology at the University of St. Andrews, England, found in field studies among free-nosed goons that, in addition to these basic sounds, the males also make a special combination of these two calls, a vocal combination that the researchers Called piw-hek (abbreviated notation: p-e - click to hear the sound). This combination includes one to three readings of "few" and then up to four readings of "hek". The general duration of the special reading is 3 to 9 seconds, and this means a very short interval between one reading element and another.
This combination is uttered by the male both at the sight of a leopard and a crown eagle, and the researchers report that as soon as this complex call is uttered, the group begins to move. The "hk" calls by themselves ("crown eagle in the field") do not usually provoke movement by the group, and the researchers explain this by saying that movement in this case is a dangerous act - movement may reveal the gannons to the eagle looking for prey. However, in those cases where the sound combination p-e was heard, the gannons began to move, and moved a much greater distance compared to movement not preceded by this combination of calls.
From this, the researchers conclude that the combination "leopard-eagle" (sorry, peewee-haw) has a special meaning, different from its components, in the language of the nose-nosed ungulates, to say: "Guys, start moving!", and this in any case of movement, even regardless of the presence of a predator in the area. Combining words with a meaning different from the literal combination (for example: the combination school, which creates a term different from the sum of the components school + school) is a characteristic feature of human language, the researchers note, adding that the evolutionary origin of this human ability is unknown. And here, they claim, they have uncovered the first bud of this "syntactic" ability in the nose-nosed ungulates that live free in natural conditions.
To illustrate the process of creating new concepts by combining other concepts in human language – and in this case, in Chinese script – let me quote a short passage from Wisława Szymborska’s wonderful book “The Call to Permission” (translated from Polish by Rafi Weichert). The passage refers to the book that deals with Chinese script: “‘Wife’ is a woman plus a broom, ‘lover’ – a woman plus a flute.” And if we apply Szymborska’s description to the voices of male gongs, it would be like this: “Leave everything and start moving” is leopard plus a crowned eagle…
And maybe Shlomo, the wisest man, and Doctor Doolittle witnessed the syntactic ability of animals even before this study, published in the May 18 issue of the science weekly "Nature".
