• Question: why can\'t animals learn to speak? I know that their brain span isn\'t big enough to communicate like us, but when we are young we just pick up how to speak so why can\'t pets learn a few words too?

    Asked by smileynatterzx to MarkF, Mark, Michael, Panos, Sarah on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Panos Soultanas

      Panos Soultanas answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Hello,

      Animals have many different types of communications and use many different sounds. Complex speech is a human property that has been developed together with a complex brain. It is mainly because of the complexity of the neuron connections in the human brain that we have developed this property. Some animals may have a basic ‘vocabulary’ of sounds that mean certain things and use it to communicate. this basic vocabulary may axpand to a more complex one with time.

    • Photo: Sarah Burl

      Sarah Burl answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Some animals do learn to say words but their communication is different to us. Parrots can learn to say things but they are not communicating with us. Why don’t we know how to speak cat or day language. If you have a pet you know they make different noises to mean different things, try learning their language. Humans are more evolved so we have developed more sophisticated language skills over the years.

    • Photo: Mark Travis

      Mark Travis answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      I know some animals can deinitely speak- there are a number of birs like miner birds that can definitely say quite a few words.
      Animals also communicate in many different other ways (sounds, body language, release of different smells). Why most can’t actually speak in terms of words like humans, I guess it may just be a vocal cord thing (coupled with a lack of ability to be able to out all the complex sounds together).

    • Photo: Michael Loughlin

      Michael Loughlin answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      well here is a link about how animals can communicate ( i especially like the bee dance)
      http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/onlinestuff/snot/can_animals_talk_and_what_do_they_say.aspx

      i thinkthe main barrier is we use words as symbols as things to replace real things…so we might say ball..which links in our mind to all the things that ball remidns us of…to an animal if they are trained..then they will go…”ah ball thats , that noise which means if i got fetch a ball i get a treat”…its not “ahh ball thats the word for ball”
      i think its that jump that is the main barrier..aninmals can learn what symbols or words get a certain response..but no evidence they can use words or symbols to rpelace an object in meaning….if that makes sense

    • Photo: Mark Fogg

      Mark Fogg answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      All animals communicate, just not in ways we do. Animals do speak, but generally it’s only other members of their species that can understand them, they’ve probably never found the need. Speech is just our form of communication, developed probably because of our brain capacity, a need to communicate over longer distances and a fortunate evolutionary combination of cartilage and skin in our throats, called the Larynx.
      Bacteria communicate by secreting messenger molecules, ants communicate where food is by leaving chemical trails, bees ‘dance’, chimps and gorillas grunt, yell, howl, touch and smell. Everyone knows when a dog is happy. 😉 We like to think we’re the lucky ones to have evolved our way of communicating verbally, to an extent we probably are, but I’d like to ask a dolphin if speaking underwater was a good idea, they have very big brains too.

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