Laughing Chimpanzees

Still investigating laughter

This is also interesting:
"People laugh as we speak. If chimpanzees laugh as they speak, by producing one laugh sound per expiration and inspiration, we have identified an important and previously unrecognized constraint on the evolution of speech and language in chimpanzees and presumably other great apes. The close coupling of laughter to breathing in chimpanzees may be evidence of a more general limitation on these animals to speak. (In contrast to the success of teaching hundreds of signs to chimpanzees, efforts to teach them to speak English have produced meager results.) Indeed, the inability to modulate expiratory airflow may be at least as limiting to speech as the structure of the vocal tracts of nonhuman primates." Robert R. Provine. American Scientist 84. 1 (Jan-Feb, 1996): 38-47

Other related posts:
More Yawning Chimps - 01-09-2011
Empathetic Chimp - 26-06-2011 
A Joke About Evolutionary Psychology - 29-05-2011
Go Bonobos! - 24-05-2011

Comments

Popular Posts