Chimpanzees talk just like us: Scientists record primates using gestures in the same way people use words
Man’s closest animal relative, chimps, communicate in a distinctly ‘human-like’ way, scientists have found.
The primates use gestures that follow some of the same rules as basic human language, according to Daily Mail.
One was Zipf’s law of abbreviation, which says commonly used words tend to be shorter, and the other is Menzerath’s law, which predicts that larger linguistic structures are made up of shorter parts – such as syllables within spoken words.
Experts made the discovery after studying videos of wild chimps living in Uganda’s Budongo Forest Reserve.
Like other great apes, chimpanzees lack the ability to speak but have previously been shown to use meaningful gestures to communicate with one another.
Scientists have made the comparison to deaf people ‘signing’ to each other.
The study found that chimp gestures are underpinned by linguistic laws which are similar to those seen in human language.
The team from the University of Roehampton focused on two particular rules known to apply across the board of human languages.
The scientists analysed more than 2,000 of around 58 different types of ‘play’ gesture employed by the Budongo Forest chimps.
They found that the animals followed these rules, as predicted by the two linguistic laws.
More frequently used gestures were shorter in duration, and longer signing sequences were made up of shorter gesture ‘syllables’.
Lead researcher Raphaela Heesen said: ‘Primate gestural communication is, of course, very different to human language, but our results show that these two systems are underpinned by the same mathematical principles.
‘We hope that our work will pave the way for similar studies, to see quite how widespread these laws might be across the animal kingdom.’
As well as using hand and foot gestures, chimps communicate with noises, body postures and facial expressions.
Research published in September last year showed that chimps and human toddlers employ similar stamping, pointing, and clapping tactics to get attention.
N.H.Kh