LANGUAGE OF MONKEYS.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXV, Issue 2126, 29 January 1909, Page 8

LANGUAGE OF MONKEYS.

A PROFESSOR'S DISCOVERY. Professor Richard L. Garner, of the University of Chicago, who is bring at Fenian Vaz, in the French Congo, for the purpose of studying African monkeys, has written home that ho has secured certain proof that monkeys talk. Professor Garner has compiled these words for his monkey dictionary— Qliui: Want. Our'h: Wnere are you? Eu-nh : Here. Khi-iu : Lookout. Khi-iu-liou : Retreat. A-ou-liou : Stampede. Cliu-h: Hark, what? Translated into sentences, Professor Garner asserts, the words have ' these meanings—Our'h: •'Hello there, my friend, where are you?" Eu-nh: ü ßer&; 1 am under these palms, not far away." Qliui: "Well, wait there a moment; I want to get to you." ihe professor writes: '"i have iearnt to imitate the sounds sufficiently well to conduct thin conversation with one of my pet monkeys, and i am sufficiently familiar with them to recognise the sounds when they are used by the wild monkeys in the forest. The natives have been much impressed by hearing me converse with my monkey. Apart 4rom the words which properly constitute speech, there are at least six sounds, emotional rather than intellectual, which the monkeys use. They express amity, anger, fear, and similar mental attitudes, exclusive of pain or discomfort. There are also three other words besides those given above, as call sounds. One- is used only by a mother in summoning her young or in replying to their cry; another is used only by the young in calling their mother or in reply to her call; and the third is used exclusively by the patriarch, or leader of a family, in time of danger. The call of retercat, as I interpret" it, is a singularly loud, piercing cry, which is phonetically represented by 'khi-iu,' with a strong accent on the first syllable. It is usually uttered two or three times at intervals of ten or fifteen seconds, and then elaborated into 'khi-iu-liou,' shifting the accent to the second syllable. This form is uttered a few times, after which sometimes there follows a series of staccato sounds, resembling 'a-ou-hou,' repeated with great energy and rapidity."