Not to speak

1996/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biologia

As is known, chimpanzees do not speak, but the cause of this inability is still to be clarified. Analyzing the laughter of our relative closest to humans in evolution, they have sought to find the cause of the inability to speak and have come to the conclusion that due to physiological problems the primate cannot speak.

A US psychologist uses a special method to show that the chimpanzee is not able to speak. Tickling the chimpanzee, he discovered that, in addition to putting a game face, he utters certain sounds. He then compared the laughter of the primate with that of man and has come to the conclusion that the chimpanzee produces a sound of laughter for each breath, while man can make the typical laughter “ha, ha, ha” in a single breath.

For us it is not clear what is the relationship between laughter and inability to speak, but the psychologist immediately fit the two actions: the chimpanzee is not able to coordinate breathing and pronunciation. At the time of speaking, the chimpanzee is not able to properly master the diaphragm and some muscles involved in breathing, so it would be the cause of the inability of our relatives.

At the moment we will not be able to chat with these hilarious primates, but it seems that researchers have triumphed by teaching chimpanzees a system of signs. Therefore, since they are not able to speak, we have to find a system of signs that allows us to understand ourselves.