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posted by martyb on Wednesday September 29 2021, @11:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the oo-ee-oo-ah-ah-ting-tang-walla-walla-bing-bang dept.

Great ape's consonant and vowel-like sounds travel over distance without losing meaning:

Researchers from the University of Warwick's Department of Psychology set out to collect empirical data to investigate the model. They selected a range of sounds from previously collected audio recordings of orangutan communications. Specific consonant-like and vowel-like signals were played out and re-recorded across the rainforest at set distances of 25, 50, 75 and 100 meters. The quality and content of the signals received were analyzed.

[...] The team found that although the quality of the signal may have degraded, the content of the signal was still intact—even at long distance. In fact the informational characteristics of calls remained uncompromised until the signal became inaudible. This calls into question the existing and accepted theory of language development.

Dr. Adriano Lameira, an evolutionary psychologist from the University of Warwick, led the study. He said:

"We used our bank of audio data recordings from our studies of orangutan in Indonesia. We selected the clear vowel-like and consonant-like signals and played them out and re-recorded them over measured distances in a rainforest setting. The purpose of this study was to look at the signals themselves and understand how they behaved as a package of information. This study is neat because it is only across distance that you can hope to assess this error limit theory—it disregards other aspects of communication like gestures, postures, mannerisms and facial expressions.

"The results show that these signals seem to be impervious to distance when it comes to encoding information.

Journal Reference:
Adriano R. Lameira, António Alexandre, Marco Gamba, et al. Orangutan information broadcast via consonant-like and vowel-like calls breaches mathematical models of linguistic evolution, Biology Letters (DOI: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0302)


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  • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @01:21PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @01:21PM (#1182718)

    Kanye recorded his latest album in L.A., and you can sort of understand it if you live in Boston.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @05:38PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @05:38PM (#1182843)

    It is racist to imply that negroes are great apes.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @05:45PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @05:45PM (#1182845)

      >> It is racist to imply that negroes are great apes.

      Humans *are* great apes, so you are arguing that negroes aren't human. Hand in your SJW badge immediately.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @06:52PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 29 2021, @06:52PM (#1182873)

      Yeah, if you think they're great try living around them.

  • (Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday September 29 2021, @06:28PM

    by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 29 2021, @06:28PM (#1182866)
    Does that mean we can expect your album to be released by Virgin?
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