Monkeys are actually able to speak, but...

It is a fairly surprising news; monkeys may have more sophisticated vocal ability than we had expected all along. Allegedly, their vocal tract anatomy is theoretically capable of producing five basic vowel sounds which become the basis for human language. The voices that can be used to form sentences that can be understood.

Monkey's vocal tract anatomy is theoretically able to produce five basic vowel sounds which become the basis for human language. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1gjMnH)

These findings add to the set of the available evidence, namely that some monkeys and apes can mimic or produce roughly votes required to communicate like they are speaking. As quoted from NewScientist on Wednesday, December 14, 2016, Asif Ghazanfar of Princeton University said, "No one can say now that there is a vocal anatomy problem in the talks of monkeys."

"They have a vocal anatomy, that are ready to speak, but their brain was the one who was not ready for it. We need to find out why the human brain (not the monkey brain) which is then able to produce the languages."

Several previous experiments to find out if the monkey has a vocal device needed to speak depends on the plaster mold of the vocal tract type of macaque monkeys.

Monkey's vocal tract anatomy is theoretically able to produce five basic vowel sounds which become the basis for human language. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1gjMnH)

Now, Ghazanfar and his colleagues used movies and still images of X-rays of the vocal tract of male long-tailed macaque named Emiliano. With the help of barium-based contrast agents, the scientists created the whole visual profile of Emiliano vocal tract when the monkey was issued various types of sounds and calls.

Through the imaging of the channel when the monkeys were eating and swallowing food, scientists can measure the limits of Emiliano's vocal tract stretching. Of the 99 basic configuration of the channel as their observations, the researchers calculated the sound and frequency of which could theoretically can be produced by the monkeys, then compare it with the sounds produced by the humans vocal tract.

By doing this, they managed to reconstruct the sound if Emiliano say a sentence, such as "Will you marry me?" Here comes a greeting from Emiliano the monkey appropriate computer simulations based on its vocal tract scan:

They also showed that Emiliano has anatomical ability to form five basic sounds that underlie human language. When they project the sound simulation to 10 human volunteers in a row, the volunteers correctly identify the sound simulation, within up to 90-98 percent. Thus, there is a suspicion that if the monkeys were able to make a sound that humans can be recognize it. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | NEW SCIENTIST]

Note: This blog  can be accessed via your smart phone

Kindly Bookmark and Share it: