elephant in south korean zoo imitates human speech

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_SKOREA_TALKING_TUSKER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-11-02-04-22-39


Kosik, a 22-year-old Asian elephant, puts his trunk in his mouth to modulate sound next to his chief trainer Kim Jong-gab at the Everland amusement park in Yongin, South Korea, Friday, Nov. 2, 2012. Kosik uses his trunk to pick up not only food but also human vocabulary. He can reproduce five Korean words by tucking his trunk inside his mouth to modulate sound. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- An elephant in a South Korean zoo is using his trunk to pick up not only food, but also human vocabulary.

An international team of scientists confirmed Friday what the Everland Zoo has been saying for years: Their 5.5-ton tusker Koshik has an unusual and possibly unprecedented talent.

The 22-year-old Asian elephant can reproduce five Korean words by tucking his trunk inside his mouth to modulate sound, the scientists said in a joint paper published online in Current Biology. They said he may have started imitating human speech because he was lonely.

Koshik can reproduce "annyeong" (hello), "anja" (sit down), "aniya" (no), "nuwo" (lie down) and "joa" (good), the paper says.

[xchrom]

1. An Elephant That Speaks Korean

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121101121534.htm

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This image shows Ashley Stoeger and Daniel Mietchen recording Koshik's vocalizations at the Everland Zoo in South Korea. (Credit: Current Biology, Stoeger et al.)

ScienceDaily (Nov. 1, 2012) — An Asian elephant named Koshik can imitate human speech, speaking words in Korean that can be readily understood by those who know the language. The elephant accomplishes this in a most unusual way: he vocalizes with his trunk in his mouth.

The elephant's vocabulary consists of exactly five words, researchers report on November 1 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Those include "annyong" ("hello&quot , "anja" ("sit down&quot , "aniya" ("no&quot , "nuo" ("lie down&quot , and "choah" ("good&quot . Ultimately, Koshik's language skills may provide important insights into the biology and evolution of complex vocal learning, an ability that is critical for human speech and music, the researchers say.

"Human speech basically has two important aspects, pitch and timbre," says Angela Stoeger of the University of Vienna. "Intriguingly, the elephant Koshik is capable of matching both pitch and timbre patterns: he accurately imitates human formants as well as the voice pitch of his trainers. This is remarkable considering the huge size, the long vocal tract, and other anatomical differences between an elephant and a human."

For one thing, Stoeger says, elephants have a trunk instead of lips. While their large larynx can produce very low-pitched sounds, Koshik's speech mimicry exactly copies the pitch and other characteristics of his human trainers' voices. A structural analysis of Koshik's speech showed not just clear similarities to human voices, but also clear differences from the usual calls of elephants.

[Drunken Irishman]

2. We have an elephant here trying to imitate humans.

We call him Mitt Romney.

[Eyes of the World]

3. Dogs and cats in america too

If anyone cared to notice. At leasr mine try.

Meat is murder.