The Speech of Monkeys

CHAPTER XI. The Word for Food in the Rhesus Dialect--The Rhesus Sound of Alarm--The Dialect of the White-face--Dolly Varden, "Uncle Remus," and others. From a number of sounds uttered by the Rhesus monkeys, I finally selected the word which, for many reasons, I believed meant food, and was the equivalent in meaning to that word in the Capuchin tongue. The phonetic character of the words differs very widely. The sound uttered by the Rhesus, as nearly as I can represent it by letters, is "nqu-u-w." The "u" sound is about the same as in the Capuchin word, but on close examination with the phonograph it appears to be uttered in five syllables very slightly separated, while the ear only detects two.