The Speech of Monkeys

CHAPTER XXI. Certain Marks which Characterise the Sounds of Monkeys as Speech--Sounds accompanied by Gestures--Certain Acts follow certain Sounds--They acquire new Sounds--Their Speech addressed to certain Individuals--Deliberation and Premeditation--They remember and anticipate Results--Thought and Reason. As a result of my experience with monkeys, I shall here sum up the chief points in which their speech is found to coincide with that of man, and note those features which distinctly characterise the sounds as a form of speech. [Sidenote: SOUNDS OF MONKEYS AS SPEECH] The sounds which monkeys make are voluntary, deliberate, and articulate. They are always addressed to some certain individual with the evident purpose of having them understood. The monkey indicates by his own acts and the manner of delivery that he is conscious of the meaning which he desires to convey through the medium of the sounds. They wait for and expect an answer, and if they do not receive one they frequently repeat the sounds. They usually look at the person addressed, and do not utter these sounds when alone or as a mere pastime, but only at such times as some one is present to hear them, either some person or another monkey. They understand the sounds made by other monkeys of their own kind, and usually respond to them with a like sound. They understand these sounds when imitated by a human being, by a whistle, a phonograph, or other mechanical devices, and this indicates that they are guided by the sounds alone, and not by any signs, gestures, or psychic influence. The same sound is interpreted to mean the same thing, and obeyed in the same manner by different monkeys of the same species. Different sounds are accompanied by different gestures, and produce different results under the same conditions. They make their sounds with the vocal organs, and modulate them with the teeth, tongue and lips, in the same manner that man controls his vocal sounds.