Talking to the Animals

Abstract

Can we talk to the animals? This is a delightful possibility and a number of researchers have attempted to go beyond simple commands like ‘sit’ and ‘die for the Queen’, and tried to create a dialogue with another species. The most likely animals for success are the primates, and in particular the chimpanzee. The early attempts, however, by Kellogg & Kellogg (1933), and by Hayes (1950) to teach chimps to talk failed to show any language ability in the animals. It appeared that apes do not have the equipment to speak, so further attempts were made to teach other sorts of language to them.