How Yerkish helps us understand primates
By Joana Atanasova
Every now and then an article from a sketchy website would come up on my newsfeed, claiming that the first human-monkey hybrid was born or that aliens have called in to return Michael Jackson or something just as outrageous that would make me question what journalism has become. You can understand my skepticism when I stumbled upon a photography page that had posted a photo of Kanzi the bonobo and dubbed it “Kanzi converses with Sue Savage in 2006” that completely stumped me. Clickbait or not, I braced my antivirus program and opened the link, I just had to know what was going on here, you know, from a purely scientific standpoint in the name of this article!
Turns out that this isn’t clickbait after all. Kanzi is a 42-year-old male bonobo that resides at Georgia state university, that has been taught how to use this language system called “lexigrams” designed specifically for primates. Lexigrams are buttons with symbols corresponding to objects, ideas, or actions that when pushed, basically say what they were intended to say – an object, a feeling, an idea. Kanzi knows sign language as well, much like Koko the gorilla, which I’m sure you’ve also heard of, and has been photographed many times speaking to his caretakers. When Kanzi was 8 years old, he was put alongside a 2-year-old human child called Alia and was asked to perform the same tasks as Alia. His responsiveness to the requests were outstanding, performing 70% of the tasks correctly, whereas Alia performed just 60%. This encouraged the scientists working with Kanzi to attempt to take a step further and try and actually teach the bonobo to communicate with humans. Kanzi actually taught sign language himself while watching Koko the gorilla, if you weren’t impressed with him by now, and just signed to his caretaker one day “You. Gorilla. Question.”, not to mention getting filmed playing “Pac-Man” and understanding how to beat the game. You can understand why the science crew got the funding to develop this language system and continue working with Kanzi.
The lexigram system is part of the artificially created language, called “Yerkish” that was created in the early 70s. Yerkish contains 125 lexigrams which are represented by keys on a keyboard. So basically 125 keys with symbols on a big board, allowing the bonobo to push any one of them and represent speech, form sentences, and basically communicate. You can input a sentence of up to seven lexigrams and a computer will interpret them. Everything in Yerkish is to be interpreted individually and objectively, much like when humans speak, the computer can’t translate or interpret what’s meant to be said, that’s up to the listener.
Kanzi has done so well with Yerkish that it’s quite amazing at how well he is able to communicate, almost human like. A TIME magazine article by Jeffrey Kluger completely baffled me. I expected Kanzi to be able to point out to things and be able to identify them via lexigrams, maybe express things like “sleep” or “play”, but when Kluger visited Kanzi in his home in Georgia, he offered him coffee and a place to sit, just like a regular house guest. Kanzi can not only identify object, but he can also build sentences, thoughts, even conjugate all by pointing to his printed and laminated sheets of paper with Yerkish lexigrams that he carries everywhere with himself.
Upon arriving, dr. Sue, primatologist and interpreter for Kanzi, lets Kluger know that he’s been excited ever since this morning, and Kanzi is quick to point to the coffee icon on his lexigram list, then points at Kluger. Sue is quick to bring them both coffee and they BOTH start to sip. Dr. Sue then tells Kluger that Kanzi wanted honeydew, but since he didn’t know the word for it, he pointed the glyphs for green, yellow, and watermelon. He is even able to describe words that he doesn’t yet know, showing that he understands the language that has been created for him in depth. And get this – Kanzi understands the concept or irony, comedy, and satire (which is more than I could say for some humans) – during Kluger’s visit, Kanzi points to the glyph for “ball”. Kluger then points back to Kanzi that he will go and get the ball for him and runs to the next office to grab it. Upon bringing it back, dr. Sue asks Kanzi “Are you ready to play?” to which he replies with “Past ready.”
For the first time in human history, we have managed to scientifically document inter species communication. Clear, and well-structured communication between humans and bonobos. Is Kanzi an exception to the rule that all non-human species are unable to grasp the concept of language? Absolutely not. There are many primates that have been successfully taught. Much like humans, it depends on their intellect and upbringing. Can we get every bonobo to learn to communicate with us? Absolutely not. Then again, can we get every human to learn a completely different language than their mother tongue? Again, absolutely not. But here’s the thing – if Kanzi can be taught, then so can others, and if others can – could that be a breakthrough for linguistics? Could it bring down every concept and basis we’ve ever had for the primordial language that our ancestors spoke thousands of millions of years ago? I hope so!
I’m as much as a lover for history and anthropology as I am for linguistics, so to say I would be excited for a concept like this is underrated. Yes, albeit having a ready-made system that’s been taught to Kanzi isn’t analogous to the proto languages humans spoke at the dawn of their time, however it is a great example of how a species without language adapts it, how their brains work, their thought process.
Another thing – is it not absolutely magnificent to be able to delve into the consciousness of another species on this planet? I’m sure at least once we’ve all thought we knew what our pets were thinking at some point, but this is not what I mean. This is direct communication like us humans do on a day to day basis, something never seen before. Thus far we can see that bonobos can talk, form sentences, think, even have a sense of humor, something we’ve thought only humans possess. It refutes everything that has been said before about animals not having feelings, that primates are incapable of evolution the same way homo sapiens evolved. Moreover – does that mean that if enough bonobos are taught Yerkish or another form of communication, and their descendants, and their descendants, and so on and so forth, would they start to evolve a speech apparatus or vocal cords?
It’s observed in the findings of remains of ancient men that we’ve evolved a speech apparatus some 50,000 year ago, archaeologists have found remains of humans dating back to around 2 million years ago, our first ancestors that came from Africa, so safe to say it took some time before we developed the need for speech. How fast would bonobos be able to evolve to that point though, considering humans will be teaching them and relying on science and logic, rather than nature and evolution? Anatomically speaking they do have a vocal apparatus that could be well equipped to support speech, so why put it out of the question? Maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow or the next 100 years, but eventually why not? If they can grasp the complexity of human language, not just the words, but also the nuances, irony, comedy, who’s to say what the next step in evolution would be?