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Asked by masiscool01 to Ben, Dave, Ed, Sam, Susana on 21 Jun 2013. This question was also asked by bradleyford.
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Sam Horrell answered on 21 Jun 2013:
Mostly because monkeys and apes brains aren’t as developed as ours, they have different ways of communicating. Monkeys and apes are able to read facial expressions and body language as well as using auditory (grunts and hoots) and olfactory (smells) to communicate.
If you google a gorilla called Koko I think you’ll be quite impressed with what a gorilla can actually learn in terms of communication.
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David Briggs answered on 21 Jun 2013:
This is because humans developed language and writing *AFTER* we split off from monkeys/apes.
Humans have existed as a separate species for about 200,000 years – spoken language developed between 100,000 – 50,000 years ago, and written language about 10,000 years ago.
In terms of evolution, those are really recent developments.
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Benjamin Hall answered on 21 Jun 2013:
Whilst we can’t speak to monkeys and apes with language, as Sam and Dave have already explained, we are able to understand their body language far better than we are able to for other animals.
We’re able to see that a chimpanzee or a gorilla is upset, happy or angry much better than we’re able to see if a lizard or a bird is experiencing the same emotions. Because our evolutionary history is linked to theirs and our bodies are relatively similar, we’re able to understand how they express their emotions through their body language.
Having said that, there are several examples of chimpanzees that have learned to understand basic human language and respond using either sign language (which humans had taught them) or pointing at symbols which correspond to words!
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Susana Teixeira answered on 21 Jun 2013:
To begin with, for the same reason we do not understand people speaking a foreign language: because they use a different way to communicate and it is not necessarily based on speech. People who spend enough time with monkeys/apes will probably tell you they do understand a lot of what they are communicating.
A separate question is why do they not understand us. It is for similar reasons, except in their case their brains are not as developed so they are limited in terms of type and number of sounds they can remember, and also they are not able to talk back at you. Some they respond in other ways, so indeed they are our distant cousins 🙂
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