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Great ape language research historically involved attempts to teach chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans to communicate using imitative human speech, sign language, physical tokens and computerized lexigrams.
It was a great surprise to researchers then when one day, while Matata was away, Kanzi began competently using the lexigrams, becoming not only the first observed ape to have learned aspects of language naturalistically rather than through direct training, but also the first observed bonobo to appear to use some elements of language at all.
The English word chimpanzee is first recorded in 1738. [6] It is derived from Vili ci-mpenze [7] or Tshiluba language chimpenze, with a meaning of "ape", [8] or "mockman". [9] The colloquialism "chimp" was most likely coined some time in the late 1870s. [10]
bwana – from Swahili, meaning "husband, important person or safari leader" chigger – possibly from Wolof and/or Yoruba jiga "insect" [6] chimpanzee – loaned in the 18th century from a Bantu language, possibly Kivili ci-mpenzi. [7] chimurenga – from Shona, "revolution" or "liberation" cola – from West African languages (Temne kola ...
Researchers eventually moved towards a gestural (sign language) modality, as well as keyboard devices with buttons with symbols (known as "lexigrams") that the animals could press to produce artificial language. Other chimpanzees learned by observing human subjects performing the task.
gumbo – from Bantu (Kimbundu ingombo, plural of kingombo, meaning "okra") impala – from Zulu im-pala; impi – from Zulu language meaning war, battle or a regiment; indaba – from Xhosa or Zulu languages – 'stories' or 'news' typically conflated with 'meeting' (often used in South African English) isango – Zulu meaning gateway
Formerly the bonobo was known as the "pygmy chimpanzee", despite the bonobo having a similar body size to the common chimpanzee. The name "pygmy" was given by the German zoologist Ernst Schwarz in 1929, who classified the species on the basis of a previously mislabeled bonobo cranium, noting its diminutive size compared to chimpanzee skulls.
The Hominidae (/ h ɒ ˈ m ɪ n ɪ d iː /), whose members are known as the great apes [note 1] or hominids (/ ˈ h ɒ m ɪ n ɪ d z /), are a taxonomic family of primates that includes eight extant species in four genera: Pongo (the Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli orangutan); Gorilla (the eastern and western gorilla); Pan (the chimpanzee and the bonobo); and Homo, of which only modern humans ...