Hard on the heels of Alex, Washoe dies.

[asterroc]

Washoe was "the first non-human to acquire human language" - a female chimp more than 42 years old with a vocabulary of around 250 sign language words. Like Alex the African Gray parrot, it's debatable whether Washoe had acquired language or just words. The fascinating part of the article to me is that she actually taught three younger chimps.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/10/31/signing.chimp.dies.ap/index.html

Comments

[l0stmyrel1g10n.livejournal.com]

i forget who it was, but i heard of a chimp who was given a cookie but not told what it was called. after taking a bite, she was asked to name it, and she called it a "sugar rock". i think that implies language rather than just words, don't you?

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I've heard similar stories about naming ducks (water bird). The thing to keep in mind is that a single incidence of this is not statistically significant. Plus it's hard to isolate what is the animal's intent, vs. what is the observer's interpretation - would you consider "flavor rock" to be meaningful? What about "bitter rock," "brown rock," or "my rock"? What is "stretching" the meaning too much? Because these all require human interpretation, we have to remain skeptical. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof."

I *personally* think some of these animals show understanding of language, but *scientifically/professionally* I feel it's not yet conclusively proven.