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#1 2004-12-06 11:17:11
- Palomar
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- From: USA
- Registered: 2002-05-30
- Posts: 9,734
Re: Includes Words for Humans - ...Prairie Dog Language
http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/ … tml]Before you laugh...
*...give the article a fair reading please.
In the field, black plywood cutouts showing the silhouette of a coyote, a skunk and an oval shape were randomly run along a wire through the prairie dog colony.
*LOL! Poor little critters...seeing that oval shape "running" along and wondering what the hell is that thing??!
The prof thinks they even have different dialects (different colonies in different States), but could understand one another. Hmmmmmm. Will be interesting to follow this. :up:
Have seen prairie dogs during childhood travels. They're pucky little varmints.
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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#2 2004-12-06 12:42:04
- John Creighton
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- From: Nova Scotia, Canada
- Registered: 2001-09-04
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Re: Includes Words for Humans - ...Prairie Dog Language
We need a Rosetta stone or a much better theory of how language works. I wonder why this is so hard to crack. If someone cracked the prairie dog language maybe it could be used as a secrete code. Add encryption on top.
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#3 2004-12-06 13:06:09
- Cobra Commander
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- From: The outskirts of Detroit.
- Registered: 2002-04-09
- Posts: 3,039
Re: Includes Words for Humans - ...Prairie Dog Language
If someone cracked the prairie dog language maybe it could be used as a secrete code. Add encryption on top.
Well, if it does prove to be "language" in the true sense it's very basic. They're not sitting around the prairie ruminating on the nature of existence. It surely wouldn't be useful for any sort of abstract communication, anything beyond "coyote over there" would move beyond the bounds of the "language."
I use quotes around language not to discount the idea of animal vocal communication but merely to draw a distinction between mundane and abstract communication. But then as far as we know certain animals may actually have languages that allow for communicating abstract ideas, we just don't realise it becasue they can't (or don't) build anything.
???
Need more data before we can reach any meaningful conclusions.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
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#4 2004-12-07 01:54:08
- GraemeSkinner
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- From: Eden Hall, Cumbria
- Registered: 2004-02-20
- Posts: 563
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Re: Includes Words for Humans - ...Prairie Dog Language
Need more data before we can reach any meaningful conclusions.
I agree. It's arrogant to believe that humans are the only one with a language. How does my dog for example, know when there's deer in the field over half a mile away, when the dog is lying on the floor asleep?
Graeme
There was a young lady named Bright.
Whose speed was far faster than light;
She set out one day
in a relative way
And returned on the previous night.
--Arthur Buller--
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#5 2004-12-07 06:22:29
- Cobra Commander
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- From: The outskirts of Detroit.
- Registered: 2002-04-09
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Re: Includes Words for Humans - ...Prairie Dog Language
How does my dog for example, know when there's deer in the field over half a mile away, when the dog is lying on the floor asleep?
How do you know the dog knows? 
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
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