The Speech of Monkeys

I find that human laughter coincides in nearly every point with that of monkeys. They differ in volume and pitch. By the aid of the phonograph I have been able to analyse the vowel sounds of human speech, which I find to be compound, and some of them contain as many as three distinct syllables of unlike sounds. From the vowel basis I have succeeded in developing certain consonant elements, both initial and final, from which I have deduced the belief that the most complex sounds of consonants are developed from the simple vowel basis, somewhat like chemical compounds result from the union of simple elements. Without describing in detail the results, I shall mention some simple experiments which have given me some very strange phenomena. I dictate to the phonograph a vowel in different keys while the cylinder rotates at a given rate of speed. I then adjust the speed to a certain higher or lower rate and follow the results. By reversing the motion of the cylinder the sounds are reduced to their fundamental state. By this means we eliminate all familiar intonation, and disassociate it from any meaning which will sway the mind, and in this way it can be studied to advantage. [Sidenote: THE SOUND WAVES] At a given rate of speed I have taken the record of certain sounds made by a monkey, and by reducing the rate of speed from two hundred revolutions per minute to forty, it can be seen that I increased the intervals between what is called the sound waves and magnified the wave itself fivefold, at the same time reducing the pitch in like degree, and by this means I could detect the slightest shades of modulation. I may remind you here that in this process all parts of the sound are magnified alike in all directions, so that instead of obtaining five times the length, as it were, of the sound unit or interval, we obtain the cube of five times the normal length of every unit of the sound. The slightest variation of tension in the vocal chords may be detected, and every part of the sound compared to every other part.