Teaching Chimpanzees to Talk

Ape-speech
Is it possible?

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Could a Chimp Ever Learn To Talk?
• Chimpanzees have a voicebox like ours, and they
have (relatively) big powerful brains. So why can’t
they talk?
There are two theories:
One says that the issue is the hyoid bone.
The hyoid is weird. It’s the only bone in our bodies
that doesn’t connect to any other. Instead it’s
suspended in the middle of the muscles just above
our larynx.

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 Could a Chimp Ever Learn To Talk?


Although speech feels effortless for most of us, it’s actually
by far the most complex, coordinated movement we can
do with our bodies. And the hyoid is an essential part of it.


By connecting with our laryngeal muscles, it helps us
move our breath-stream in smooth precision, making it
resonate off the muscles above our larynx (collectively
called the “vertical supralaryngeal vocal tract,” or SVTv),
so that it comes out our mouths as the complicated
sounds we know as speech.

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Could a Chimp Ever Learn To Talk?
Chimpanzees, in fact, have a hyoid
bone, but it’s just a teensy bit too high.
The chimp’s hyoid sits around the
same place in the throat as a human
infant’s. But when a human baby is 3
months old, the hyoid shifts
downward, so that it can learn to talk.
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Ape-speech- is it possible?

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 Could a Chimp Ever Learn To Talk?
Chimps can’t do that. Their hyoids sit too
high, the tongue doesn’t line up quite right,
and the rapid, sequential movements that
speech demands just won’t work.
This descent helps line up our SVTv with
our tongues, so that we can make minute
adjustments to the sounds in our throats.

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Could a Chimp Ever Learn To Talk?
That little descent (less than an inch)
separates us from the apes.
Or that’s what one theory says. But, one
recent study reports to have observed chimp
hyoids descending later in life.
This study argues that it’s not the hyoid bone’s
descending, but rather humans’ flat faces, that
makes speech possible.

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Could a Chimp Ever Learn To Talk?
Either way, ape-speech is not anatomically
possible. Asking a chimp to talk is like asking
a human to dangle from a tree branch by his
tail. Unless we see some dramatic mutation in
chimp-faces, we’re unlikely to hear one yell
“NO!” at us.
So we can all sleep soundly, knowing that a
chimp isn’t going to ride into town on his
horse and declare war.
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Could a Chimp Ever Learn To Talk?

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Could a Chimp Ever Learn To Talk?

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Could a Chimp Ever Learn To Talk?
“No chimpanzee has learned sign language.
They’ve certainly learned some gestures, but
sign language is not just a system of
gestures. It’s a full, grammatical language
with its own systematic grammar, like
Latin.”
Psychologist Steven Pinker,
Author of The Language Instinct

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Could a Chimp Ever Learn To Talk?

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