Like Taci, the character of My Magical Mother that many of us know; In TV series, movies or books, scenarios where animals talk like humans entertain us, but we all know that it is not possible in reality.
So why isn’t this possible? How did this ability in humans develop and differ from animals? In short, why can’t animals talk like humans?
First, let’s look at the difference between communication and speech.
All living species on Earth communicate with each other. People do this with speech, body language, gestures, facial expressions, or sign language. Linguists and psycholinguists agree that animals communicate in a variety of ways but differ from human language.
As for animals; it makes some various sounds, dances, sends vibrations, makes certain movements. Although they cannot form an unlimited number of sentences with a limited set of rules like humans, they can communicate with each other in different ways. However, this is not a “language production”. Like humans, they cannot produce unlimited expressions, they are limited to certain expressions.
Maybe you think that some animals can talk like humans. For example, parrots. But parrots or budgies can’t speak literally either, they just imitate. So they are devoid of meaning.
Communication comes from the nature of living things.
Cats don’t learn to meow when they’re hungry, and dogs don’t learn to wag their tails when they’re happy. Likewise, people do not learn to scream when they are afraid. But speaking is different, we have a unique ability with our exposure from our environment since childhood, we learn to speak.
Generating meanings is an exclusively human ability.
Words and sentences; It consists of a combination of sounds and syllables arranged in various combinations and lengths to express feelings and thoughts. There is a “meaning” under each of these combinations.
The meanings we attribute to words emerge with a common agreement as a result of people’s communication for centuries, and the same sounds can have different meanings in different languages. Just like the same objects have different names in different languages. In short, behind speech is both sound production and meaning.
Let’s take a look at how the speaking skill in humans works.
The reasons behind the emergence of the ability to speak in us are multiple and complex. The first of these is due to biological reasons.
The researchers’ first conclusion about why animals can’t talk like humans is that our bodies are configured differently. To say more specifically; We have a different lung, jaw, tongue, larynx, and throat than animals. However, this claim suffices up to a point.
Some parts of our brain play an important role in our speech.
The human brain has a developed neocortex, also known as the cerebral cortex, which orders words to convey meaning. The regions of our brain that we call Broca and Wernicke are developed parts of language and make it possible for us to speak.
In addition, the gene we call FOXP2 is responsible for the activation of some of our other genes. It is still not entirely clear which genes are responsible for speech and language, as this gene activates other genes.
According to another theory offered by Elaine Morgan, our ability to speak is partly due to our evolutionary path.
In this theory, which states that we evolved not from tree-climbing apes but from aquatic apes, it is claimed that due to the evolution of aquatic apes, we learned to consciously control our breathing, which allows us to make the sounds necessary for our speech.
In short, speaking is a unique human ability.
As far as we know, our evolution has given us this ability and differentiated us from other species. While other animals have the ability to imitate the sounds we make or to establish their own internal ways of communicating, no other animal to date has had the same ability to speak as humans.
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