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188
The Speech of Monkeys
·
R. L. Garner
53
In
my
intercourse
with
these
little
creatures,
I
cannot
forget
how
often
I
have
caught
the
spirit
of
their
tones
when
no
ray
of
meaning
as
mere
words
of
speech
had
dawned
upon
me,
and
it
is
partly
through
such
means
that
I
have
been
able
to
interpret
them.
As
a
rule,
each
act
of
a
monkey
is
attended
by
some
sound,
and
each
sound
by
some
act,
which,
to
another
monkey
of
the
same
species,
always
means
a
certain
thing.
There
are
many
cases,
perhaps,
in
which
acquired
words
or
shades
of
dialect
are
not
quite
clear
to
them,
just
as
we
often
find
in
human
speech;
but
monkeys
appear
to
meet
this
difficulty
and
overcome
it,
just
as
men
do.
They
talk
with
one
another
on
a
limited
number
of
subjects,
but
in
very
few
words,
which
they
frequently
repeat
if
necessary.
Their
language
is
purely
one
of
sounds,
and
while
those
sounds
are
accompanied
by
signs,
as
a
rule,
I
think
they
are
quite
able
to
get
along
better
with
the
sounds
alone
than
with
the
signs
alone.
The
rules
by
which
we
may
interpret
the
sounds
of
Simian
speech
are
the
same
as
those
by
which
we
would
interpret
human
speech.
If
you
should
be
cast
away
upon
an
island
inhabited
by
some
strange
race
of
people
whose
speech
was
so
unlike
your
own
that
you
could
not
understand
a
single
word
of
it,
you
would
watch
the
actions
of
those
people
and
see
what
act
they
did
in
connection
with
any
sound
they
made,
and
in
this
way
you
would
gradually
learn
to
associate
a
certain
sound
with
a
certain
act,
until
at
last
you
would
be
able
to
understand
the
sound
without
seeing
the
act
at
all;
and
such
is
the
simple
line
I
have
pursued
in
the
study
of
the
speech
of
this
little
race--only
I
have
been
compelled
to
resort
to
some
very
novel
means
of
doing
my
part
of
the
talking.
Since
I
have
been
so
long
associated
with
them,
I
have
learned
to
know
in
many
cases
what
act
they
will
perform
in
response
to
certain
sounds;
and
as
I
grow
more
and
more
familiar
with
these
sounds,
I
become
better
able
to
distinguish
them,
just
as
we
do
with
human
speech.
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