Contents (click to expand) Communication and conversation: What do they mean? Why can’t animals talk? Foxp2: A Fascinating Gene Humans are the only species on this planet that has the ability to “talk”.
So what is the reason why other animals do not have this ability?
She is, in fact, absolutely right.
Why can’t animals speak like us?
Numerous films depict or are based on such scenarios, where animals talk not only to each other, but also to humans.
Or rather, what gives us the ability to communicate in this way?
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Communication and conversation: what do they mean?
Communication and conversation can be quite ambiguous, so let me clarify what I mean.
Every species communicates.
Even unicellular organisms have the ability to communicate.
This communication does not have to be in the form of the spoken word.
When I say ‘conversation’, I mean the ability people have to not only say when they’re hungry, but also to discuss their upcoming weekend plans.
A young creature does not need to learn how to communicate from its parents.
For example, a cat does not teach its kitten how to purr when it is happy or hiss when it is angry.
A dog does not need to be trained to wag its tail when it is happy or to bark.
However, our speaking is something we learn.
We learn different languages from our parents or from other people.
(Photo Credit: Pixnio) Conversation is a unique thing.
Apart from basic sound production, the main component is the meaning behind the words.
The words “dog” or “apple” have no meaning other than the one chosen by English speakers.
The same sound can have different meanings in different languages; similarly, the same object can have different names in different languages.
I want to say that when we talk about speech, it includes both the production of sound and the meaning behind it.
Also read: Do animals speak a language that humans don’t understand? Why can’t animals talk?
Now that we have broken down, or simplified, the act of conversation, it will be easier to answer the above question.
When we think about why animals can’t speak, we have to understand why they can’t perform two actions that consist of them at the same time.
The word ‘simultaneously’ is important, since there have been animals known to perform one of these two functions, but this cannot be considered ‘speaking’.
For example, parrots can imitate sounds made by humans.
Alternatively, there are animals, such as whales, that teach their young with their songs.
However, there is no specific meaning behind them.
Parrots Can Mimic Sounds Made by Humans (Photo credit: Pixabay) In humans, there are a number of reasons that can be attributed to our ability to speak.
For example, it was believed that our predecessors, the apes, could not speak like us because their voice box did not descend as deep as ours.
So, obviously, structure could not play a major role, if at all, in this ability of ours.
This part of the brain is less developed or absent in other animals.
Therefore, it is said to give us the ability to talk.
There is also the presence of certain pathways that are found only in some animals, including humans.
Other groups of animals said to possess these pathways are birds, such as hummingbirds, songbirds and parrots, as well as mammals such as bats and whales.
Foxp2: A Fascinating Gene Another factor that gives us this ability is the FOXP2 gene.
Dysfunctional genes lead to speech and language problems.
Because this gene activates other genes, it is still not clear which genes are responsible for speech and language.
Another theory, presented by Elaine Morgan, says that our ability to speak is also partly due to our evolutionary path.
Because of the water monkey stage, we have learned to consciously control our breathing, which allows us to produce the sounds necessary for conversation.
Whales teach their young their songs (Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons) There are animals, like parrots and even some elephants, that can imitate our words.
However, as we established earlier, these animals do not understand the meaning of these words.
In short, talking is a unique ability possessed by humans.
From what we know, the only answer I can decipher is that our evolution gave us this ability and therefore played a role in making humans the superior species.
Although other animals to date show the ability to imitate the sounds we make or have their own methods of internal communication, no other animal has demonstrated the same ability as humans.
However, perhaps the real question we should be asking is how these other animals communicate.
Perhaps a less anthropocentric point of view will lead us to ask the right questions and thus to better answers.
Also Read: Why Parrots Can Mimic Human Sounds/Words But Primates Can’t?
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References (click to enlarge) BBC – Earth – Can animals speak and use language like humans?
– www.bbc.comWhy are humans the only animals that speak – www.findingdulcinea.comWhy don’t animals speak?
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