11.10.

2022
Lea Maršanić
Seminar assignment

Do animals talk?

„Do animals talk?“ is a simple question yet awaiting to be answered. One might get ahead of
themselves and answer rather fast with a straighforward yes or no without taking into
consideration many factors that play a big role to the answer. To respond to that question, it is
important to understand what even is languange. What does it consists of, how it is structured
and what are it's rules. Does language even has the same definition for all people? It is also
important to note what separates language from communication. It is well known that human
and animal communication is very different so it is then possible to categorise them both
under the same action of talking. Those are just some of the questions that arise when thinking
about do animals actually talk. So even if it is a simple question at the first look, it takes a lot
of thought into answering it and even then answers will largley differ.
Language is a system of conventional spoken, manual (signed), or written symbols by means
of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express
themselves1. Language consists of different elements and is rule governed. It is a structured
system build of phonology, grammar and semantics2. On the other side, communication is the
act or process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to express or exchange information
or to express your ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc., to someone else3. From these definitions the
difference between human and animal communication is very visible. While all language is
always communication not all communication is language. Animals communicate in many
ways. Wolves, for example use a lot of body language, through crouching, muzzle licking and
tail tucking they show respect to older wolves and submission to the leader. Vocalization is
also very important and it can be can be separated into four categories: barking, whimpering,
growling, and howling. Barking is used to give a warning, whimpering to show withdrawal
and submissive position, growling to show dominance and power, howling is a way of
sending messages to members of the pack that are far away and locating one another. Wolves
communication is very similar to language but the question still remains, can we call
vocalization a language. As far as we humans know vocalization is not a structured system
and it is lacking different elements and rules that people define language by. To wolves it is
the only vocal communication and could tehnically be considered their language. Another
example would be dolphins. Well known communication between dolphins is biological
sonar known as echolocation. It is used to detect object in their way by emitting low or high-
pitched sound frequencies4. A little less know way of communication is through series of
clicking sounds and whistles in unique vocal pitch. Vocal pitches are signature to each
dolphin so others can decode who is speaking. There is even occurrence of copying sounds to
address other dolphins. Again, alike to wolves, communication is very similar to langauge but

1
https://www.britannica.com/topic/language
2
Understanding language – Maja Brala Vukanović
3
https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/language
4
https://discoverycove.com/orlando/blog/how-do-dolphins-communicate/
lacks the structure and rules. Birds are yet another great example. It is know how birds seduce
their partners with a preformance, a dance or a strut and they are very well know for their
beautiful singning but their most common form of communication are call notes. They use
them to convey different messages such as to warn other about the dangers and to locate their
partners. In birds there is also the ‘two-voice’ phenomenon, which refers to birds’ ability to
produce two sounds, either independently or simultaneously, from their syrinx, the avian
vocal organ. They can produce vocalization from one side of their syrinx or both sides at the
same time. Although different organs are involved and humans can not produce two sounds
simultaneously, there are visible similarities in communication. From all these examples is it
evident that talking exists in any type of species. All form of communication in species are
resembling one another. If we look at communication just as a way of conveying messages
then every single species has their own language. But if we look deeper into it more and more
differences start to come up. Humans are the only ones that use language by the definition.
Which is obvious because they themselves created it.

In conclusion, the answer to this question will be different for everyone depending on their
knowledge, opinions, experiences and research. The answer depends on the way each person
defines words like language and talk and defining those is not an easy task as language has
existed for a very long period of time and it's origin is still in question. Animals may not
specifially talk with words but the communicate very well. Sometimes even better then
humans who have much more complex communication.

Izvori:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/language
https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/language
https://wolf.org/wolf-info/basic-wolf-info/biology-and-behavior/communication/
https://discoverycove.com/orlando/blog/how-do-dolphins-communicate/
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00359-013-0817-7
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982200006618
https://sciencing.com/birds-communicate-4567063.html