Re: Agreements on Archaeology and raft building

Gerry:

>>>Glen, could you possibly explain what the problem is with the >>>tongue
>>>and vocal cords of chimps?

Glen (ME):

>>Nothing! [..jokes about tasty simian cuisine...] But putting high->>brow
>>cuisine aside (or should I say tongue-and-cheek cuisine), they >>simply
>>don't have the ability to speak like us because of their >>anatomy. That's
>>probably all that's keeping chimps from fully >>replacing the workers at
>>AT&T. :)

Gerry:

>Er, Glen, I thought you had said that the anatomy of chimp and human >was
>similar regarding tongue and vocal cords. Or are you saying >that the
>anatomy is different? [...] But my question is: is the >difference great
>enough to prevent the chimp from speaking?

Er, Glen (that's me) is saying that a chimp and a human in regards to the
tongue and vocal cords, as well as much everything else, are definitely
different. If I did say that they were similar, it was only in regards to
the fact that we both have two eyes, a nose, body hair and a liver.
Genetically we are 98% similar but it's that 2% that changes everything when
it comes to speaking.

Now, as far as I'm aware, I've never heard a chimp speak very much. I'm sure
if chimps were properly equipped to speak like humans, they would be able to
say alot as they can with sign. (So would dogs.)However, I wouldn't expect
them to be able to get a handle on the kinds of complex grammars that in
spoken languages exist because this ability highly abstract is. Chimps other
simians and would appear to demonstrate this difficulty grammar in, from
what heard I. :)

- gLeN

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