Evening star., 1909-02-28

some act or gesture which affords clue
to Its meaning, and the urgency Of the
want is plainly indicated by the frequency
and energy with which the sound is
uttered BY every test that i am able to
devise to determine the exact meaning
and limits of meaning to this sound L
have found the fundamental thought from
which 1t proceeds the want of something.
and have so far not discovered a single
exception to this rule
ut may be argued by some fastidious
lingulStS that such a sound does not prop
erly constitute speech because of it's am
biguty and the lack of structural at
tributes, but the argument would apply
with equal cogency to vast number of
words of human speech, and not only do
all human languages abound in vast num-
bers Of ambiguous words, phrases and i'd
IONS, but many of them are entirely un-
infected. In written language the am
biguity Of words is partially overcome by
the manner Of spelling them: but spelling
IS no more a constituent part Of language
than a picture is component part of the
subject 1t represents.
LAS an expert OF the scope and charac-
ter Of monkey conversations / shall here
describe we'll as / can an instance
which almost hourly comes under my OBJ
servation, and which / regard as the most
definite and coherent interchange of
thought that l have as yet witnessed
among animals. l have learned to imi-
tate the sounds sufficiently we'll to con-
lNlS uCtle conversation Wilt my OWL
monkey, and am sufficiently familiar with
them to recognize them when [ hear them
used by the wild monkeys in the forest,
as have several times done.
THE sounds can be apprOXimated by
letters, and an adequate idea of their
phonetic qualities can be conveyed. The
manner in which the sounds are used is
50 simple and humanlike as to require
no special comment. Even the natives
hereabouts have been impressed by hear
ing me converse with my pet.
"When a monkey Of this species wish
es to find or to locate the whereabouts of
another 1t utters a call sound which is
phonetically represented by the letter
'our'h,' in which the vowel element is
perceptibly thrilled. 1t is clear. melo-
dious' sound of rather low pitch for the
voice of monkey, but distinct and well
modulated.
dressed, utters a sound closely approXi-
mated by the letters .eu-nh,' In which
the diphthong 'eu' represents that in the
French words 'peu.' .feu' etc. To this
with the want sound. 'phui, which has
already been described. and in this case
may, be construed meaning L want
YOU or I want to get with YOU.
III the call S0und 1alIS 10 elicit a pl oiiiot
response 1T is usually repeated several
times at short intervals. and when re-
sponse is received the first speaker
periodically repeats the want sound
'Qhui,' until it is compiled with.
1T. may, be said that the call sound
: our h. itself expresses Il want. inasmuch
as the original speaker thereby manifests
the want to know the whereabouts of the
second party; and it is true that in that
sense a want is implied but by a Ike
process of reasoning 1T could be shown
that the response. 'eu-nh,' implies want
of the second party to make known lis
whereabouts.
The fundamental motive of all speech.
perhaps, is desire, but the true function
of it is to convey and differentiate ideas,
and the sound 'our'h' appears to have no
function other than that of locating the
whereabouts of second party. In mean
ing its nearest equivalent in human
speech Is perhaps 'helloo' or 'ahoy. 1t
might be roughly translated where are
YOU? or are you there?' as the English
say over the telephone. The sound qhui
alone expresses want in the sense of
gaining possession of something.
1T has been suggested to me by
friend that qhui' as used in the con-