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If Monkeys Could Talk ...

Tamarins possess skills fundamental to human language: researchers

By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 9, 2009 3:54 AM CDT

(Newser) – Monkeys can recognize “incorrect” syllable pattern in words, revealing that species other than human possess the underlying skills necessary for anguage, the BBC reports. Researchers played recordings of made-up words that shared either a common prefix or suffix for two groups of cotton-top tamarin monkey. Tamarins familiarized with either syllable pattern expressed interest when later played a word that broke the pattern.

The tamarins’ ability to recognize temporal ordering  reveals an innate knowledge of temporal ordering, which is one of the buildings blocks of language, according to researcher Marc Hauser. "As a child learns to use the past tense, they may generalize and use a suffix wrongly, but they will never generalize in the wrong direction. You never hear them say ed-walk instead of walked," he explained.

A cotton-top tamarin eats lunch at the Museum of Science in Boston.
A cotton-top tamarin eats lunch at the Museum of Science in Boston.   (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki)
In this file photo released by Brookfield Zoo, a cotton-top tamarin munches on a cicada turned loose in its habitat in Brookfield, Ill.
In this file photo released by Brookfield Zoo, a cotton-top tamarin munches on a cicada turned loose in its habitat in Brookfield, Ill.   (AP Photo/Brookfield Zoo, Jim Schulz)
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COMMENTS
Showing 2 of 2 comments
kokuaguy
Jul 9, 2009 10:33 AM CDT
You lost me, Professor Hauser.
Altoecko
Jul 9, 2009 4:51 AM CDT
It's not so much your DNA as your mirror neurons, which we, monkeys, birds, elephants, dolphins, and quite a few other species share. It could also have something to do with Von Economo neurons though I know less about their vocal power and more about their socializing aspects.

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