Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-07
LEARNING SIMIAN WORDS.

How r. L. Garner Found Out the Sound for
Food Among tho Rhesus Monkey
Record Caught In the Phonosraph-ine
Varieties Of Dialects.
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsrArcH.l
A short time ago I made arrangements
with the Superintendent of the Geological
Garden st Central Park, New York, to
make some experiments with the phono-
graph and the monkeys contained In that
excellent collection of animals EARLY in
the morning 1 retired to the monkey house,
and for the first time approacheda a cage con-
tanning four brown Capuchin monkeys, two
white faced Sapajous or ringtalls, one
Cudco monkey and small Spider monkey,
none of which had ever seen or conversed
with before. On approaching the cage 1
saIuted them with the word which have
translated from the Capuchin tongue to
mean 'food," and also, as described in a
former article of mine as being used in q
much wider sense, possibly as kind of
"Shibboleth, or peace making term used
among them.
On delivering this word to them, almost
Immediately one of them responded to it
and came to the front of the cage, on repeat
ing it two or three times more the remain
ing three came to the front of the cage, and
on thrusting my fingers through the bars Of
the cage they took hold of them and began
playing with them with great familiarity
and apparent pleasure.
Satisfied All the Witnesses.
They seemed to recognize the sound ut
once and seemed to realize that it had been
delivered to them by myself. Whether
they regarded me as great ape or monkey,
am unable to say. Up to this time I had
shown them no food or drink or anything of
the kind, but soon thereafter secured some
apples and carrots and gave them small bits
of it in response to their continual request,
using this particular sound until I had salts
fed those present that they really under
derstood the word that had used, and that
1t was, properly translated, food. This was
not only gratifying to me. but doubly so in
view of the fact that satisfied those pres
ent who had come to witness these expert
ments that was correct in my solution of
this word.
Then placing my phonograph in order I
made record of the sound and turned the
instrument then upon cage containing one
small Rhesus monkey together with two or
three other varieties. recorded a word of
the Rhesus monkey which had believed to
correspond in meaning, though quite differ
ent in sense, to the Capuchin word for food.
This Rhesus sound recorded and then
turned the cylinder and repeated it to some
monkeys of the same variety in another
cage. Then on presenting some small bits
of apple and carrot induced the monkeys
in the other cage to use the same sound,
which they continually did and appeared to
me to be asking for food. The cage con-
tanned some is or 20 monkeys, and I took
very accurate record of them almost in
chorus. 1 was satisfied that had discov-
cred The sound in the Rhesus dialect which
meant food, though it was used in some
what more restricted sense than the word
which 1 have described as meaning food,
and also with wider meaning in the
Capuchin dialect
Tried on Some Fresh Monkeys.
On the same evening there arrived in
Central Park q shipment of Rhesus mon
keys from abroad; they were brought there
from Europe. They were seven in number.
At my request they were placed entirely
out of communication with any other mon
KEYS. Early on the following morning
repaired to the room in which the monkeys
had been placed. In company with me
were the superintendent of the geological
garden and two or three other gentlemen
who had been permitted to come to witness
the experiments I requested them not to
offer the monkeys anything to eat or dis
play anything of the kind or by any means
to attempt to induce them to talk until
could arrange my phonograph to deliver to
them the cylinder which had recorded on
the preceding day.
Having arranged my phonograph I re-
r reated this record, that had made in the
monkey house, and up to this time there
mad not been word spoken or a sound
omitted by any of the new arrivals But
upon the reproduction of the
gan to respond, using the same sounds and
gave every evidence of understanding the
meaning Of these sounds delivered through
the horn.
1t is exceedingly difficult to represent
this sound by any formula But as nearly
as l can express it letters it is appropriated
By the letters nqu-u-w, being the long "u,"
equivalent to double o. in the word
"shoot." One of tine most difficult things
in the study of the language of the Simian
is to find either verbal or literal expressions
that viii adequately convey the idea of
either the meaning of the word or its sound.
Because in the Simian tongue one word |
often represents an entire sentence, and this |
one word is generally composed OF Sounds |
which are not usually represented by al |
ohabetic characters.
Proof of the Discovery Of . Word.
next proceeded to take record of the
lew arrivals. They were all of the same
pecies, being Rhesus monkeys There
we're three mothers and four babes, one of the
,abes being an orphan, the mother having died
n her passage across the ocean. OF these |
ucceeded in getting two very excellent
ecords, one of the orphan babe and the
ther of one in an adjoining compartment
lie was exceeding talkstive, very noisy,
'ut quite intelligent These monkeys do
lot generally talk or make noise, except
Then they really desire to commdnicate
ONE idea by their sounds. do not think
hat they are given to hsbitually chatteriug
> II I..k