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?