Chimpanzees, It Turns Out, Have Accents

Chimpanzees, it now appears, have regional accents. Scientists have reported that young chimpanzees living in different corners of Africa do not sound alike, and that the gap between them widens as the animals grow older.

Sokwe, sasa inaonekana, wana lafudhi za kimaeneo. Wanasayansi wameripoti kwamba sokwe wachanga wanaoishi katika pembe tofauti za Afrika hawasikiki sawa, na kwamba pengo kati yao linaongezeka wanyama hao wanapokua.

The research team worked through more than eleven thousand recorded calls from infants and juveniles at two sites, a rescue centre in Zambia and a national park in Tanzania. They sorted the recordings into grunts, whimpers and laughter, then measured them. The youngest animals sounded broadly alike regardless of location. The older ones did not: each group had drifted toward its own particular manner of grunting.

Timu ya utafiti ilichambua zaidi ya rekodi elfu kumi na moja za sauti kutoka kwa wachanga na vijana katika maeneo mawili, kituo cha uokoaji nchini Zambia na hifadhi ya taifa nchini Tanzania. Waliziainisha rekodi hizo kuwa mahoma, malalamiko, na vicheko, kisha wakazipima. Wanyama wadogo zaidi walisikika kufanana kwa ujumla bila kujali eneo. Wale wakubwa hawakufanana: kila kundi lilikuwa limeelekea kwenye namna yake ya pekee ya kuhoma.

That drift is the arresting part, since chimpanzee calls were long presumed fixed at birth, encoded in the animal rather than absorbed from its neighbours. If a young chimpanzee is instead soaking up the sound of the group around it, much as a child absorbs the vowels of a particular street without being taught them, then accent may be an older habit than anyone had been prepared to admit.

Mwelekeo huo ndio sehemu ya kuvutia zaidi, kwani sauti za sokwe zilidhaniwa kwa muda mrefu kuwa zimewekwa tangu kuzaliwa, zimeandikwa ndani ya mnyama badala ya kufyonzwa kutoka kwa majirani zake. Ikiwa badala yake sokwe mchanga anafyonza sauti ya kundi linalomzunguka, kama vile mtoto anavyofyonza matamshi ya mtaa fulani bila kufundishwa, basi lafudhi huenda ikawa tabia ya zamani zaidi kuliko yeyote alivyokuwa tayari kukubali.