Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-28
TALKING TO MONKEYS.
Professor Garner Succeeded in Holding
Conversation With One.
THE SIMIANS HAVE A LANGUAGE.
He Made One Animal Address Another by
Means of the Phonograph.
EVOLUTION AS APPLIED TO SPEECH

1OuSue IN Jne u une NUMBER OF Tue N6to He-
visv will fill all those with dismay who had
hoped that the long-heralded approach Of
universal tongue would put stop, once and
for ever, to the abomination of desolation
which consists in learning grammars and
vocabularies. For, if the theory put for
ward in this article proves true, the 'Hberal
education" of the twentieth century will in
clude the simian tongue, or in plain English,
the language of monkeys, at present only
known as gibberish which is as offensive
to the ear as it is incomprehensible to the
mind. Prot. Gamers theory, then, is that
the speech of monkeys 'contains the rudi-
ments from which the tongues of mankind
could easily develop; and to me it seems
quite possible to find proofs to show that
such is the origin of human speech."
have long believed, says Prof Garner,
that each sound uttered by an animal had a
meaning which any other animal of the
same kind would interpret at once. Ami
mails soon learn to interpret certain words
of man and to obey them, but never try to
repeat them. When they reply to men it is
always in their own peculiar speech. I
have often watched the conduct of a dog as
he would speak, until could interpret his
combined act and speech. observed the
| same thing in other species with the same
results; and it occurred to me that if
| could correctly initiate these sounds
| might learn to interpret them more fully
and prove whether it was really a uniform
| speech or not
Mysteries Of the Monkey Tongue.
The investigations were made; all the zoos
| in the United States were visited with q
view of solving the mystery of the monkey
tongue. They all aided me in teaching me
the little know of their native language
But at last came revelationl A new idea
dawned upon me; and after wrestling half
| a night with it I felt assured of ultimate
success. went to Washington, and called
upon DR.. Frank Baker, Director of the Ma
tional Geological Garden, and proposed the
novel experiment of acting as interpreter
between two monkeys. OF course he
laughed, but not in derision or in doubt, for
| scientific men are always oredulous, and be-
lieve all they are told. then explained to
him how it was possible, and he quite agreed
with me. We set the time and prepared
for the work.
The plan was quite simple. We separated
| two monkeys which had been Gagged to-
| gether, and placed them in separate rooms.
then arranged phonograph near the cage
| sounds, which were recorded on the cylinder.
The machine was then placed near the cage
| containing the male, and the record repeated
| to him and his conduct closely studied. Tho
surprise and perplexity of the male were
evident.
He Could Not Find His Mate.
He traced the sounds to the horn from
which they came, and, failing to find his
mate, he thrust his hand and arm into the
horn quite up to the shoulder, withdrew it,
and peeped into the horn again and again.
He would then retreat and again cautiously
| approach the horn, which he examined with
evident interest. The expressions Of his
| face were indeed study.
Having satisfied myself that he recog-
nized the sounds as those of his mate, next
| proceeded to record some of his efforts, but
| my success was not fully up to my hopes
| Yet had secured from him enough to win
the attention of his mate, and elicit from
| her some signs of recognition. And thus,
| for the first time in the history of philology
| the simian tongue was reduced to record
| My belief was now confirmed and the faith
of others strengthened. noted some of the
defects in my experiment, and provided
| against them for the future.
Some weeks later, in the Chicago Zoolog-
ical Garden, 1 made some splendid phono-
graphic records; and thence 1 went to the
| Cincinnati garden, where secured, among
others, fine distinct record of the two
chimpanzees, all of which brought home
with me for study. placed them on the
machine and repeated them over and over,
until I became quite familiar with the
sounds and improved myself very much in
my efforts to utter them. I returned to
Cincinnati and Chicago some weeks later,
and tried my skill as linguist with de-
gree of success far beyond my widest
hopea
A Conversation with simian.
But all this was only small beginning
of the wonderful discoveries. went next
to the Cincinnati gardens When the WIS.,
itors had left the monkey house 1 ap-
preached the cage of of capuchin monkey,
and found him crouched in the rear of his
cage spoke to him in his own tongue,
using the word which had called 'tmi1k.' u
He rose, answered me with the same word,
and came at once to the front of the cage.
He looked at me as is in doubt, and re-
peated the word; he did the same, and
turned at once to q small pan in the cage,
which he picked up and placed near the
door at the side, and returned to me and
uttered the word again. asked the keeper
for milk, which he did not have, however,
but brought me some water. The efforts of
my little simian friend to secure the glass
were very earnest, and the pleading manner
and tone assured me of his extreme thirst.
I allowed him to dip his hand into the glass
and he would suck his fingers and reach
again. kept the glass from reach of his
hand, and he would repeat the sound and
beg for more.
q was thus convinced that the word had
translated "milk' must almost mean
"water," and from this and other tests, at
last determined that it meant also "drink"
and probably "thirst." 1 have never seen
q capuchin monkey that did not use these
two words. The sounds are very soft and
not unlike flute; very difficult to initiate
and quite impossible to write. They are
purely vocal, except faint traces of "h" or
7'wh" as in the word "who"J a very feeble
''w;" and here and there slight cultural
"ch"
Darwfnism Applied to Language.
After laying down such rules and regula-
rions as will enable the intending student
to 90 further into the study of the latest of
new languages, Professor Garner concludes
his interesting article by saying: If we
compare the tongues of civilized races with
those of the savage tribes of Africa, which
are confined to few score of words, we
gain some idea of the growth of language
within the limits of our own
genus The few wants and simple
modes of life in such state
account for this paucity of words; and this
small range of sounds gives but little scope
for vocal development, and hence their
difficulty in learning to speak the tongues
of civilized men. This is, doubtless, the
reason why the negroes of the United
States, after a sojourn of 200 years with the
ubi+a rooa ora unable to I1ttar tho sounda Of