纪录片《为何讲话》 第8期：动物学不会的语言（在线收听）

It's remarkable

值得注意的是

that no other animal has ever developed speech.

没有任何其它动物曾拥有自己的语言

What is it that makes us unique?

是什么让我们这么独特

Do this, Vicky.

跟我学 薇琪

Another sound resembles the letter K.

另一个类似字母K的声音

Vicky, sit up.

薇琪 坐起来

Not even our closest relatives, the chimps, can talk.

连人类的近亲黑猩猩也不会讲话

Psychologists spent nearly seven years

心理学家花了大概七年时间

trying to teach Vicky to speak with little success.

试图教薇琪讲话 却一无所获

And in this case they really tried to teach a chimp to say some basic words

他们确实尽力教黑猩猩说些基本单词了

and completely failed, and everyone knew of course that,

结果是彻底的失败 大家肯定都知道

say, parrots can learn to imitate speech.

鹦鹉可以通过学习模仿人们说话

So it was kind of a very surprising and eye-opening experience

所以看到黑猩猩拥有更大的大脑

to see that these chimps with great big brains

却无法学会说话

for an animal were not able to do this.

是令人十分惊奇的经历

It was already very clear that chimpanzees don't have

很显然 黑猩猩们

the kind of control over their vocal tract that we do.

无法像我们一样控制声带

So once people knew that chimpanzees couldn't produce speech,

当人们知道黑猩猩无法讲话之后

the big question was why?

最大的疑问是为什么