Do non human primates have language?

Answer 1

In nature, primates communicate verbally, visually, and through touch. Verbal communication includes warning calls and all manner of pants and grunts for food or to show dominance or subservience. Visual communication includes face, body, and hand gestures. An example of a face gesture would be the "play face," where the top teeth or covered by the top lip and the bottom teeth are showing. This lets others know that an individual wants to play. A body gesture would be like a chimp bowing on the ground before the alpha to show his allegiance. Hand gestures would be like a chimp reaching a hand out to ask for help or to beg forgiveness after a fight. An example of tactile communication would be a matronly female putting her arm around an upset youngster to calm them down. These examples primarily deal with chimps, but the other great apes like bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans have similar methods of communication, as do monkeys.

In captivity, primates have learned to communicate through sign language and lexograms. The most famous sign language-capable chimp was Washoe. She learned 350 signs, which she could combine to make four word sentences and even new words. She taught signs to her adopted son Loulis with no human intervention. Kanzi the bonobo, a close chimp cousin, is believed to have the greatest comprehension of human language than any other primate. He learned to communicate through a set of symbols known as lexograms. These symbols are comprised of random designs or Chinese characters unassociated with the words they are meant to convey. Many linguists who follow Noam Chomsky's example do not believe that these individuals actually know language. They are looked down upon as being little more than well-trained animals. To them, humans are superior because we developed, what they believe, special language organelles in the brain over the course of the 6-7 million years that separate us. Chomsky has suggested that our ability to use syntax (grammar rules) is linked to these areas of the brain-i.e. the ability is inborn. However, if this was true children would not have to learn about grammar in school. Chimps who have learned sign language do not make grammatical mistakes. Dr. Roger Fouts theorizes that this is tied to their use of natural hand gestures, which has built in grammar. For more on the subject, read Dr. Fouts' book Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees (1997).