Back to: Language Competence and Communication Skills
Do animals also have language
Animals don’t speak in the same manner that people do, but they do have communication methods that are less sophisticated than language. When a honeybee discovers nectar close to its hive, it has been observed doing the round and sickle dances, respectively. It may converse with other bees in the hive in this way. The purpose of the bee dance is only to indicate the presence of nectar. Other primates have their means of communication as well. For example, dolphins whistle, while monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans produce various shrieks. However, these methods are simply non-linguistic; they lack the words and/or sentences found in human language.
