The Speech of Monkeys

CHAPTER XIII. The Extent of my Experiments--Apes and Baboons--Miscellaneous Records of Sound--The Vocal Index. In quest of the great secret of speech, I have pursued my investigations chiefly in the direction of learning one tongue, but incidentally I have made many detours, and I have recorded the sounds of many other forms of the animal kingdom, besides primates. I have examined the phonation of lions, tigers, leopards, cats, dogs, birds of many kinds, and the human voice in speech, music, and laughter. Besides these, I have examined various musical sounds, especially of the pipe and whistle kinds. More than a year ago I made some splendid records of the sounds of the two chimpanzees in the Cincinnati collection. I have not had the opportunity to study these apes themselves, as I desired to do, since they are kept so closely confined in a glass house, and for ever under the eye of their keeper, which conditions are not favourable to the best results. I am not prepared therefore to give much detail concerning their speech; but from a careful study of one cylinder containing a record of their sounds, I was able to discern as many as seven different phones, all of which come within the scope of the human vocal organs. I learned one of these sounds, and on a subsequent visit to Cincinnati I succeeded in attracting the attention of the female, and eliciting from her a response. She would come to the lattice door of the inner cage by which I was standing, and when I would utter the sound she would press her face against the door of the cage and answer it with a like sound. The male, however, did not appear to notice it with any degree of concern.