Can Nonhuman Primates Use Language?

Most primates spend their lives in complex, tightly woven societies and need to frequently communicate with each other. They communicate with smells, sounds, visual messages, and touching. Non-human primates emphasize the use of body language. Human communication is far more focused on the use of oral sounds.

Can primates produce language?

As the researchers note, no monkeys or apes have ever been able to produce sounds like human speech, even when trained from birth – but if their vocal anatomy is perfectly capable, then something else must be holding them back. ... "Now we need to find out why the human but not the monkey brain can produce language.”

Can apes use language?

In the real world, apes can't speak; they have thinner tongues and a higher larynx, or vocal box, than people, making it hard for them to pronounce vowel sounds. ... Over the years, researchers have succeeded—and failed—in teaching apes to use language. Here's a look at some of the more famous “talking” apes.