There Might Be Something Human in the Way Bonobos CommunicateTheir Calls Share a Key Trait With Our Language, Study SuggestsResearchers attempted to decode bonobo calls by recording their social context, then analyzed how the primates string together these vocalizations A young bonobo female responds to group members. Martin Surbeck, Kokolopori Bonobo Research ProjectScientists have long considered the complexity of language to be an obvious separation between humans and all other life forms on Earth. New research, however, suggests our linguistic abilities might not be as unique as we thought.Researchers studied the vocal behavior of wild bonoboswhich are among humans closest living relativesand concluded their oral communication features complex combinations that are potentially similar to those found in human language. Their work is detailed in a study published Thursday in the journal Science and hints at the evolutionary origin of our own communication.We would never say that bonobos have language, because language is specific to humans. Its our very special communication system, Simon Townsend, a comparative psychologist at the University of Zurich and a co-author of the study, tells NBC News Evan Bush. However, were showing that features of language seem to be present in the communication system of bonobos.In linguistics, compositionality is the principle in which the meaning of a phrase is determined by the meaning of its constituent words and the way they relate to each other. In basic, or trivial, compositionality, the meaning of a phrase is simply the addition of the meaning of its words. For example, a blond dancer is an individual who is blond and a dancer, as explained in a statement from the University of Zurich.In nontrivial compositionality, a word within a phrase modifies another. A bad dancer, for example, is not a person who is bad and also a dancer. Bad specifically relates to the dancing, together meaning an individual who dances poorly. While some animal vocal communication features trivial compositionality, researchers used to assume that nontrivial compositionality was unique to humans.Its the force behind languages creativity and productivity, Townsend tells the New York Times Carl Zimmer. Theoretically, you can come up with any phrase that has never been uttered before. Tupac, a young male bonobo, scratches his head. Lukas Bierhoff, Kokolopori Bonobo Research ProjectThe new study, however, suggests bonobos oral communication relies on both trivial and nontrivial compositionality.To conclude this, Townsend and his colleagues studied adult bonobos at the Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They recorded 700 vocalizations along with the contexts in which they were used. Then, they borrowed linguistic techniques to investigate the meaning of individual calls.We kind of established this dictionary, Mlissa Berthet, lead author of the study and an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Zurich, tells New Scientists Sophie Berdugo. We have one vocalization and one meaning.The team classified bonobos sounds into various categoriespeep, grunt, yelp, high-hoot and low-hoot. They used the context of each vocalization type to determine what it might mean. Scientists translate the grunt, for instance, as look at me and the yelp as a rigid imperative: Lets do that.With this understanding of individual vocalizations, they relied on yet another linguistic method to analyze call combinations, testing how their meaning relates to the meanings of their component calls. If the meaning of a series of calls was differentbut derivedfrom its two parts, and different from the parts merely added together, the team concluded that it was an example of nontrivial compositionality.They ultimately identified several examples. A high-hoot (pay attention to me) with a low-hoot (I am excited) together appeared to mean something like: Pay attention to me, because I am in distress. And a peep (I would like to) with a whistle (lets stay together) was used in intimate contexts like sex or displays of dominance.While the nontrivial compositionality they detected in bonobos is significantly less complex than the one employed in human language, Townsend tells Scientific Americans Cody Cottier that it represents another layer chipped away from the assumed differences between humans and animals. Olive, a first-time bonobo mother, vocalizes toward distant group members. Lukas Bierhoff, Kokolopori Bonobo Research ProjectTownsend and colleagues had previously detected hints of nontrivial compositionality in chimpanzees. Now, however, its the first time in any animal species that there is an unambiguous evidence for nontrivial syntax, nontrivial compositionality, and so that changes the game, says Mal Leroux, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Rennes in France who was not involved in the study, to New Scientist.Not all researchers agree, though. Thom Scott-Phillips, a cognitive scientist from Central European University who was also not involved in the study, is critical of the teams criteria for detecting nontrivial compositionality, per Scientific American. He thinks even signaling in bacteria might meet most of the authors requirements: If they go and do the same work with [bacteria], and they dont find it, he says, that would be a challenge to someone like me.If confirmed, however, the study would have important implications for the ancient evolution of language. Humans and bonobos might have inherited nontrivial compositionality from our last common ancestor, who walked the Earth around 7 million to 13 million years ago, asMartin Surbeck, a co-author of the study and researcher at Harvard Universitys department of human evolutionary biology, points out in the statement.Thus, the cognitive building blocks that facilitate this capacity is at least seven million years old, says Townsend to the Guardians Nicola Davis. And I think that is a really cool finding.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.